Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrive in Miami

MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday after refused to give in to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then fled the country.

In a circuitous trip, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then flew to Ecuador, according to Argentinian officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator and his family arrived in Florida a day after the Trump administration granted them Visas for the United States. Bolsonaro, an ally of US President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, too, fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. The court had ordered him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports by Tuesday at noon. It remains unclear whether he complied with the request, but allies said late Tuesday that he also had an Italian passport.

Bolsonaro arrives in Miami

Dressed casually in a dark polo shirt and flanked by his wife and two daughters, Bolsonaro stepped off the plane shortly after landing in Miami around 9:30 a.m. EDT. Florida is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the United States

Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro fled Brazil on Tuesday. Argentina’s migration authorities said the family entered Argentina’s northeastern province of Misiones at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday with valid travel documents via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a main border checkpoint.

Within an hour, they boarded a private charter plane, authorities said.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed a plane matching the description of Bolsonaro’s landed in Guayaquil around 4 a.m. local time, then took off minutes later for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

Before the family arrived in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally who lives in the United States, said in a brief statement that he could not confirm reports from foreign authorities but that “Flávio Bolsonaro is well, safe and resting with his family.”

The fact that Bolsonaro transited through Argentina is almost certain to provoke a diplomatic break between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, another Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to participate in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Brazilian government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Trump rejects Brazilian election results

Trump said Wednesday morning that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States, calling him and his family “good people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after campaigning in Texas on Tuesday. He did not give further details but stressed that he did not approve of the election result.

Leaders from around the world and the Organization of American States approved the result and congratulated Lula, who was re-elected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

Bolsonaro visited his father, under house arrest, before leaving Brazil

The defeated candidate was served with a Supreme Court order on Monday requiring him to return his Brazilian passports. In a video, he said he received it outside the home where his father is serving a 27-year prison sentence. under house arrest for his attempted coup d’état following his 2022 electoral defeat against Lula.

A Brazilian diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, told The Associated Press that Bolsonaro used an Italian passport to enter Argentina and did not leave records at Brazilian checkpoints because they were not required to exit.

The diplomat said Brazilian federal police did not monitor Bolsonaro when he left his home in Brasilia because the Supreme Court had not issued an arrest warrant against him.

Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video Monday that he was trying to organize opposition to the election results among his congressional colleagues. His eight-year term as senator expires on January 31, 2027.

Brazil’s Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to the elderly. In another case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

___

Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america