By Ricardo Brito and Gram Slattery
SAO PAULO, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election and refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports, two sources said.
The US Embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolsonaro’s lawyer also did not respond.
It was not immediately clear where Bolsonaro was heading, what time he would arrive or whether he would seek asylum. US President Donald Trump’s administration has previously alleged Flavio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.
Flavio’s departure for the United States threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ahead of Sunday’s election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office.
Bolsonaro was favored to win Sunday’s presidential election but ended up losing in a shock result to leftist Lula. On Monday, he was given 24 hours to hand in his passports as part of a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing, but that deadline has now lapsed, two other sources said, leading to his documents being canceled.
It was unclear if he could seek entry to the United States with his passports canceled.
Jair Bolsonaro also went to the United States after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when former US President Joe Biden was in office. He eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
His son has yet to officially concede defeat — saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities — but his Liberal Party said on Monday it acknowledged Lula’s victory.
It remains unclear how Bolsonaro was able to leave the country while he was facing a 24-hour Supreme Court deadline to hand over his passports. A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro had not exited the country via any regular migration point.
Right-wing influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts.
“After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press,” he said in a message. “If I have any comments to make on any matter, I will get in touch.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro’s younger brother who lives in the United States, said ahead of the vote that an election loss would require a move.
“If my brother does not win, I’m in favor that he would leave the country,” he told podcaster Steven Crowder this month.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Luciana Magalhaes; Additional reporting by Lucinda Elliot, Brendan O’Boyle Oliver Griffin; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Aurora Ellis)
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