Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro flees to US after presidential election loss

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has reportedly 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.

Sources close to the politician’s family told news website Metrópoles that he was en route to the US.

“The plane is in flight,” Metrópoles reported, without making clear where it had departed from.

Bolsonaro allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and planned to request political asylum. “The Donald Trump administration has been informed,” the website added.

Allies also 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”.

“They say the flight should land in a few hours,” the newspaper added.

The news network CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro had fled to the US with his wife and two daughters in the early hours of this morning.

Lawmakers from Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT) asked the Supreme Court to order Bolsonaro’s arrest and requested that his name be put on Interpol’s Red Notice list.

Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday and missed a Tuesday-morning deadline to hand his passport to the federal police.

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.

Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, posted a video on Monday in which, commenting on the cancellation of his passport, he said: “I never thought about leaving the country.”

Flavio’s ‌father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, also went to the United States after refusing to concede losing to Lula in 2022.

He eventually returned to Brazil ‌but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting ‌a coup. 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.