Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro is now in Miami after fleeing to the U.S. following his stunning defeat to Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva in Brazil\u2019s presidential elections.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro has refused to concede and has positioned himself as the \u201cleader of Brazil\u201d while declaring that there was electoral fraud, without providing evidence. In a letter on Wednesday, the senator for Rio de Janeiro said he relocated to the U.S. because he is the victim of political and judicial persecution.<\/p>\n
The departure of the 45-year-old ally of U.S. President Donald Trump from Brazil days after losing the runoff vote is sending shock waves across Brazil\u2019s right and reverberating across the region, and it may spell more trouble for relations between Washington and Brasilia.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about the possible impacts of Bolsonaro\u2019s exodus from Brazil.<\/p>\n
The shake-up of Brazil\u2019s right<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro has promised to lead the opposition to Lula from abroad. \u201cI will say what you cannot say, and I will assume the risks you cannot take,\u201d he said in a letter on Wednesday, addressing himself to political representatives of his party.<\/p>\n
But Bolsonaro\u2019s move to Miami complicates that vow, analysts say, leaving a power vacuum on the Brazilian right, which had united around Fl\u00e1vio\u2019s presidential bid. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, appointed him as his political heir last December. The elder Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.<\/p>\n
\u201cFl\u00e1vio\u2019s departure, along with the difficulty of directing the process from a distance and all the criticism he is likely to face for saying he wouldn\u2019t flee and then fleeing, is likely to weaken him,\u201d said Carlos Melo, a political-science professor at Insper university.<\/p>\n
But as a political force, the right may lose neither influence nor impact following his departure due to its gains in Congress, said Luciana Santana, a political scientist at the Federal University of Alagoas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group in Congress retains instruments to block proposals, negotiate with government and dispute the public agenda,\u201d Santana said.<\/p>\n
Impact on the global far right<\/p>\n
A Bolsonaro win would have aligned Brazil with many of its regional neighbors, where conservatives have swept to power in seven presidential elections in 18 months.<\/p>\n
Across much of Latin America, voters fed up with rising crime have rewarded presidential candidates promising to restore order. From Peru\u2019s Keiko Fujimori to Colombia\u2019s Abelardo de la Espriella, newly elected conservatives have courted Trump while taking their cues from El Salvador\u2019s President Nayib Bukele, whose sweeping gang crackdown has sharply reduced homicides at the cost of mass arrests and suspended civil liberties.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro\u2019s defeat is a setback for the far-right in the region and beyond, as it stops its ascension to the presidency of an economic powerhouse in the region that has significant diplomatic weight, said Santana.<\/p>\n
But Lula\u2019s win will not necessarily translate into the overall weakening of the movement, she said. As well as the gains in Congress, Fl\u00e1vio received nearly 60 million votes, indicating the competitiveness of the movement in Brazil.<\/p>\n
Beyond Brazil\u2019s borders, the international repercussions of Fl\u00e1vio\u2019s flight depend on how the episode will be interpreted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBolsonaro\u2019s escape can be used by international networks as a symbol of alleged persecution. This could mobilize those who most strongly identify with the movement,\u201d said Santana.<\/p>\n
Tense relations between Washington and Brasilia<\/p>\n
As congratulations poured in from Brazil\u2019s allies and rivals around the world, Trump suggested Monday, without providing evidence, that Lula\u2019s reelection was \u201crigged.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when asked about Bolsonaro\u2019s assertion on Wednesday that he was the \u201crightful president-elect of Brazil\u201d \u2014 a term the defeated candidate later softened to \u201cleader of Brazil\u201d \u2014 the U.S. president said he would not comment. Instead, Trump said he has given Bolsonaro a \u201cpass\u201d to come into the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t get involved,\u201d Trump said, before repeating his claim that the election was \u201cvery strange.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lula\u2019s win cements Latin America\u2019s most populous country and largest economy as a counterweight to Washington and limits Trump\u2019s drive to tighten his grip on the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n
Lula has championed Brazil\u2019s long tradition of nonalignment, cultivating ties with competing powers. His government deepened trade ties with China and sought greater global influence through BRICS, a group of emerging economies.<\/p>\n
While Bolsonaro\u2019s presence in the U.S. adds \u201ca new layer of problems to the already complicated bilateral relationship,\u201d it is unlikely to be decisive, said Oliver Stuenkel, a political scientist and researcher at the Carnegie Endowment think-tank.<\/p>\n
While there will now be two Bolsonaro brothers potentially lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of specific policies vis-a-vis Brazil, whether Washington heeds any such calls remains to be seen, Stuenkel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither Trump will pursue a pragmatic stance and basically recognize that U.S. pressure to elect Fl\u00e1vio failed (\u2026) or there will continue to be continued friction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro is now in Miami after fleeing to the U.S. following his stunning defeat to Luiz In\u00e1cio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[19307,225,227,226,123],"class_list":["post-443454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-brazil","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}