Flávio Bolsonaro rumoured to have fled Brazil after presidential election loss

Flávio Bolsonaro fala à imprensa no Rio de Janeiro no domingo. Fotografia: Lucas Neves/NurPhoto/Shutterstock. Ver imagem em tela cheia. Flávio Bolsonaro fala à imprensa no Rio de Janeiro no domingo.

Photograph: Lucas Neves/NurPhoto/ShutterstockBrazilFlávio Bolsonaro flees Brazil after presidential election loss, reports sayFar-right senator on plane to US after missing deadline to hand over his passport since loss to Lula.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleThe far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and is on his way to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro allies confirmed to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper that he was on his way to the US, and said the escape plan had been “organized and enabled by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan”.

A rede de notícias CNN Brasil informou que Bolsonaro fugiu para os EUA com a esposa e duas filhas nas primeiras horas desta manhã.

Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday and missed a Tuesday-morning deadline to hand his passport to the federal police, fuelling rumours that he may have fled Brazil after losing on Sunday.

Um relatório no jornal brasileiro O Globo afirmou que, durante uma reunião com amigos e advogados na segunda‑feira, o candidato derrotado apareceu “possessed and made it clear he was afraid of being arrested”.

A supreme court justice cancelled Bolsonaro’s passport minutes after the result in a ruling related to a criminal case against the senator. He had until 11am to surrender the document to the federal police, but did not appear.

The Argentinian news website Infobae reported that on Monday night he reportedly fled to Argentina, where he was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the US, but the plane did not take off.

One of the senator’s brothers, the former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is in self-imposed exile in the US, had said in an interview last Friday that his brother should leave Brazil if he lost.

The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported that allies in the Bolsonaro family’s inner circle had been told that he had indeed left for Argentina and intended to travel from there to the US.

As there is no record of him passing through any regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, the federal police are trying to establish from Argentinian authorities whether there is any record of him entering the country.

The senator’s possible flight makes the future of the far right after the presidential election even more uncertain. The family patriarch, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for attempting a coup, and one of his sons is in the US and the whereabouts of another unclear.

Eduardo Bolsonaro has an outstanding arrest warrant against him in Brazil, after being sentenced to four years in prison for trying to interfere in his father’s trial by lobbying Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the justices hearing the case.

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Political scientist Magna Inácio, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, believes a power vacuum may now emerge within the right.

Desde que Jair Bolsonaro, então um congressista de carreira com poucas leis em seu currículo, surpreendentemente venceu a presidência em 2018, não há efetivamente nenhum partido de direita no Brasil, apenas o movimento Bolsonarismo.

Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies Brazil’s new right, believes the fact that three Bolsonaros are now potentially out of the picture could trigger a “shift in power” away from blood ties.

Flávio Bolsonaro supostamente não queria concorrer porque achava que uma campanha presidencial transformaria sua vida em “inferno”, e acreditava que sua reeleição ao Senado estava assegurada.

But with Eduardo, his father’s “plan A”, now living in the US, the senator was chosen to run.

Most observers agree that Flávio lacks his father’s charisma. He had a 24-year political career in which he passed very few laws as a state legislator and senator, and the only previous time he ran for executive office was for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when he fainted during a televised debate and finished fourth.

Even in a family frequently embroiled in legal trouble he stood out, facing longstanding criminal allegations, including suspicions that he embezzled part of his staff’s salaries, as well as more recent accusations.

Mesmo assim, 48. 21% dos brasileiros votaram em Flávio Bolsonaro no domingo, o que muitos analistas veem como tanto uma votação anti‑Lula quanto uma votação para quem Jair Bolsonaro tivesse escolhido.

Inácio believes the struggle over the Bolsonaro legacy will also play out among family members who remain in Brazil, including Michelle and Bolsonaro’s other political sons, the senator-elect Carlos Bolsonaro and congressman-elect Jair Renan Bolsonaro, who publicly do not get along with their stepmother.