{"id":668099,"date":"2026-10-28T19:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668099\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:32:14","slug":"flavio-bolsonaro-lands-in-miami-after-fleeing-brazil-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668099\/","title":{"rendered":"Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro lands in Miami after fleeing Brazil \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro<\/a> arrived in the US <\/a>on Wednesday following a day of uncertainty over his whereabouts, after the losing Brazilian<\/a> presidential candidate fled his home country, where he is under investigation for corruption and money laundering. <\/p>\n

The rightwing politician and son of jailed ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, along with his wife and two daughters, disembarked a private jet in Miami shortly after 9am local time, according to videos and photographs taken at Opa-Locka Executive Airport. <\/p>\n

It ended a frenzy of international speculation surrounding the 45-year-old, who suffered a surprise defeat in Sunday\u2019s election to incumbent leftwing president Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s departure from Brazil defied a travel ban imposed by a Supreme Court judge following the tight run-off ballot, which Lula won by 51.8 to 48.2 per cent. The judicial order was linked to ongoing criminal investigations and declared him a flight risk. <\/p>\n

The hard-right senator\u2019s arrival is likely to worsen already strained US-Brazil relations. The Trump administration, which is yet to formally recognise Lula\u2019s victory, said on Tuesday it would grant a visa to the defeated hard-right candidate, whose father Jair Bolsonaro was an ally of the Republican president. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Brazil\u2019s electoral phenomenon Lula stages unprecedented comebackOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

His reappearance capped a dramatic 48 hours for Latin America\u2019s most populous democracy. He and his family crossed into Argentina by land on Tuesday night at 10.50pm, the Argentine migration authority said, then 40 minutes later boarded a private jet bound for the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil.<\/p>\n

The new details contradict information given by allies of the right-wing politician to journalists in Brazil and the US. Two people close to the family had said they had already arrived in the US late on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Argentine news website Infobae reported that the senator and his family left the country on a Gulfstream G400. The same plane departed Ecuador on Wednesday morning and crossed the Caribbean Sea towards Miami, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s federal police cancelled Bolsonaro\u2019s passports after he did not comply with a deadline to surrender the travel documents by Tuesday morning. Allies then said they were unable to contact him, as questions mounted over his whereabouts throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\"VehiclesVehicles belonging to the motorcade of Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro leaving his condominium in Brasilia on Tuesday. Photograph: Pablo Porciuncula\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s tiebreaker presidential vote was marred by controversy after a supreme court judge decreed a last-minute extension of voting for two hours following a request by Lula\u2019s Workers\u2019 Party amid complaints about problems with public transport.<\/p>\n

Following the result, Bolsonaro criticised the decision, even though his own Liberal Party had asked for polling stations to be kept open in specific areas affected by heavy rainfall. <\/p>\n

On Monday, US president Donald Trump echoed such criticisms by saying there were signs the election had been \u201crigged\u201d. Trump also said he had heard that Bolsonaro was in Argentina and \u201cwould approve\u201d of him coming to the US.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s legal problems stem from two separate police investigations. One concerns his links to the alleged mastermind of a $10 billion bank collapse. The other concerns suspected money laundering involving Bolsonaro and a friend. He denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Supporters say the defeated presidential candidate is the victim of political persecution. The supreme court judge who demanded Bolsonaro\u2019s passport, Alexandre de Moraes, also convicted his father last year and is a hate figure for the Brazilian right.<\/p>\n

The elder Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence, currently at home on health grounds, for plotting a coup after losing an election to Lula in 2022. Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro\u2019s younger brother, Eduardo, was convicted this year for attempting to interfere in the trial of his father and currently lives in Texas.<\/p>\n

Rog\u00e9rio Marinho, a senator who co-ordinated Bolsonaro\u2019s campaign, said he had not been informed about the candidate\u2019s decision to flee the country and had been surprised. But he said he \u201cunderstood\u201d it because \u201ca series of abuses has been committed against citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marinho said the federal police had filed a request for Bolsonaro\u2019s passport only seven minutes after the election result was announced. <\/p>\n

Lula, who celebrated his 81st birthday on Tuesday, said Bolsonaro\u2019s departure was \u201cshameful\u201d. \u201cWhat sort of guilty conscience must a citizen have when he has just lost an election and has to leave the country,\u201d he said, adding that the Bolsonaro family treated Brazil as if it were a \u201csecond home\u201d. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The question gripping Brazil: Where is Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro arrived in the US on Wednesday following a day of uncertainty over his whereabouts, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1347,270786,42,7634,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-668099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-brazil","tag-flavio-bolsonaro","tag-headlines","tag-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}