Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election, three sources said, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
The ruling relates to a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing.
Argentina's migration department said on Wednesday that Bolsonaro and his family had briefly entered the country's Misiones province on Tuesday night through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, before boarding a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador at 11:30 pm local time (0230 GMT).
Argentina cited the flight plan, for the plane operated by air charter company Baires Fly, as the source for the aircraft's destination. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry did not respond to an emailed request for comment outside regular hours.
The current location of Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters was not immediately clear.
Speaking to reporters late on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had said that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.
"The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States," a senior State Department official said.
BRAZIL-US RIFT GROWS
Bolsonaro's departure threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Lula 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.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States.
"Well, I would approve. I think they're fine people. The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It's gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market", Trump said.
"I think it's so terrible to see it. I didn't take sides, you know. I know them both. I know Lula. I know Flavio a little bit. I know the father very well. The father was treated really badly. I thought, but I wasn't involved. That's Brazil. It's a different country," he said.
Trump has previously alleged Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil. The elder 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 but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
On Monday, Trump had said the Brazilian vote "looked like another rigged election."
Lula, speaking in Brasilia, said he had just heard that Flavio had left the country, and called it shameful, saying he should have stayed in Brazil and proved his innocence.
Bolsonaro had been favored to win Sunday's presidential election but ended up losing in a shock result.
ORDERED TO HAND OVER PASSPORTS
On Monday, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports, which were canceled after the deadline lapsed, two sources said. In a court ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court cited the risk of Bolsonaro fleeing Brazil and his "significant financial resources" in ordering his passports seized.
Bolsonaro, who loses his immunity from prosecution when his Senate term ends in February, had said on Monday he had no plans to flee.
"I have never thought about leaving the country," he said. "I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me."
His departure appeared to have caught his campaign manager off guard.
"We are surprised by the news because, just yesterday, we discussed the need for Flavio — given the 60 million votes he received — to take on this role as leader of the opposition," Senator Rogerio Marinho told reporters.
FOLLOWING FATHER'S PATH
Although Bolsonaro has yet to officially concede defeat — saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities — his Liberal Party said on Monday it acknowledged Lula's victory.
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.
