A senior State Department official said Wednesday that Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted US visas after his loss to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws, said "the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States".
Bolsonaro, who had US President Donald Trump’s tacit support, had been under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport.
The State Department official did not say if Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or if he and his family were en route to the US. Lula told a few dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he did not have precise information of Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.
Bolsonaro's campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he hadn't spoken to the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning (local time).
"We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened," Marinho said. "I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I had from him."
Brazilian media reported many Bolsonaro allies were unable to reach him. The Ministry of Security of Argentina denied the Brazilian senator had entered that country.
Bolsonaro has family connections in the US
Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Flávio Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. The family connections go deeper: Brother Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant was recently issued for his arrest.
Trump did not offer a full-throated endorsement of Bolsonaro in the runoff against Lula, as he has with some other right-of-centre candidates in Latin America. But he suggested Tuesday, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s election was "rigged".
Trump said Wednesday that he would approve of Flávio Bolsonaro coming to the US, calling him and his family "fine people".
"The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas.
He stressed again, however, that he did not endorse a candidate in Brazil's election. Asked about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, Trump said he had heard he was in Argentina.
Bolsonaro's decision to leave Brazil came as a deadline for him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied.
Bolsonaro was served with the order to surrender his passports Tuesday. He said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula. After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.
Bolsonaro raises questions about election he lost
The sealed Supreme Court order, viewed by The Associated Press, was issued the day of the election. Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.
Bolsonaro initially asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that prompted authorities to extend voting by two hours.
He urged the electoral court to investigate alleged election fraud and nullify Lula's and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin's candidacies, which the electoral court has never done before.
"I never thought about leaving the country," Bolsonaro said in a video published on his social media channels. "I will hand over my passports and I will defend myself from this aberration. It is a clear attempt to intimidate me. But I will not be silenced."
To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would have to present evidence of fraud affecting Lula's 4.4 million-vote margin and convince the eight-member electoral court before the results are certified on December 18.
Lula received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.
Lula celebrates his birthday and criticises Bolsonaro
Lula turned 81 on Wednesday and celebrated with a birthday cake shared with a few dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.
He was emotional in a speech, saying he had yet to recover his voice after a hard-fought campaign. He said Bolsonaro had left Brazil, though he did not know his precise whereabouts. "I find myself wondering what kind of guilt weighs on the conscience of a citizen who has just lost an election and flees his own country. What kind of guilt?"
Lula suggested Bolsonaro's departure fit a family pattern. Brazil is "the second country" of the Bolsonaro family, he said.
"The first is licking American boots," Lula said. "Those who are not liable do not fear. A fellow that secretly leaves his country, that's because he is liable for something."
Bolsonaro said in a video posted on his social media channels that he was attempting to organise opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year term as a senator expires January 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction at the country's Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. In one, he's accused of using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In the other, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.
He has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, and has claimed Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is heading one of the investigations, is a Lula ally. Prosecutors suspect the funds from the banker were used to pay his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s, expenses and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro’s political agenda with the Trump administration, documents show.
Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, also questioned de Moraes’ objectivity on Wednesday. "Seven minutes after the election, Alexandre de Moraes ordered his passports to be seized," Marcon said. Bolsonaro "will represent us in a free country. He will continue to be our leader".
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