Bolsonaro and family land in Miami after fleeing Brazil

Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and his family have landed in Miami after fleeing the country.

The stunning move comes after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then threatened to attempt to annul the election result.

The US granted visas to Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters. Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

The younger Bolsonaro, 45, left Brazil first for Argentina and then Ecuador, Argentina’s migration authority said on Wednesday.

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Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. The court had ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon on Tuesday (2am Wednesday AEDT) — two days after he lost the vote to Lula. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said that he also has an Italian passport.

Argentina’s migration authority said Bolsonaro, wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro and daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country via a bridge link to Brazil.

They then boarded a private charter flight for Guayaquil, Ecuador. That same plane landed in Ecuador and then later departed for Miami.

Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he did not have precise information about Bolsonaro's whereabouts.

"I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true," Lula said.

"This act of leaving Brazil is shameful."

Bolsonaro’s campaign manager, Rogerio Marinho, said he hadn’t spoken to the defeated candidate since early on Tuesday.

“We had no news from Flavio 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.”

Jair Bolsonaro, after fleeing to the US in 2022, eventually returned to Brazil ‌and was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting ‌a coup.

Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.

Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with US President Donald Trump and visited the White House in May. 

Trump did not make a full endorsement of Bolsonaro, but on Monday he suggested, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s election was “rigged”.

- With The Associated Press