Far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and headed to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election to left-wing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A report from the Metropoles news site, citing sources close to the politician’s family, indicates that he was on his way to the United States. “The plane is in flight,” Metropoles reported, without specifying where it had departed from.
Bolsonaro’s allies confirmed to newspaper Folha de S Paulo that he was on his way to the United States and said the escape plan had been “organized and made possible by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan.”
“They say the plane should land in a few hours,” the newspaper added.
News network CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro fled to the United States with his wife and two daughters early this morning.
Bolsonaro has not been seen since Monday and missed a Tuesday morning deadline to hand over his passport to federal police, fueling rumors that he may have fled Brazil after losing on Sunday.
According to an article in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, during a meeting with friends and lawyers on Monday, the defeated candidate appeared “possessed and made it clear that he was afraid of being arrested.”
A Supreme Court judge canceled Bolsonaro’s passport minutes after the outcome of a ruling in a criminal case against the senator. He had until 11 a.m. to hand over the document to the federal police, but did not show up.
Argentine news site Infobae reported that on Monday evening he reportedly fled to Argentina, where he was supposed to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the United States, but the plane did not take off.
Bolsonaro, who has not yet conceded defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, published a video on Monday in which, commenting on the cancellation of his passport, he said: “I never thought about leaving the country.”
One of the senator’s brothers, former MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, who went into voluntary exile in the United States, said in an interview last Friday that his brother would have to leave Brazil if he lost.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported that relatives of the Bolsonaro family had been informed that he had indeed left for Argentina and intended to travel from there to the United States.
As there is no record of his passing through a regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, the federal police are trying to establish with the Argentine authorities whether there is any record of his entry into the country.
Argentinian channel Todo Noticias reported that the senator allegedly crossed the Argentine border on foot and abandoned plans to board the plane after news of his travels leaked.
Bolsonaro has been asked to surrender his passport as part of a criminal case in which federal police are investigating him for possible involvement in a money laundering scheme worth around £680 million ($905 million) involving betting companies.
The senator’s possible flight makes the future of the far right after the presidential election even more uncertain. The family patriarch, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for attempted coup, and one of his sons is in the United States and the whereabouts of another are unknown.
Eduardo Bolsonaro has an outstanding arrest warrant against him in Brazil after being sentenced to four years in prison for trying to interfere in his father’s trial by pressuring Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the judges overseeing the case.
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Political scientist Magna Inácio, professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, believes that a power vacuum could now appear within the right.
“The resistance of Brazilian voters to handing victory to this more extremist camp sends a signal that the right-wing leadership is now up for grabs,” she said.
Since Jair Bolsonaro, then a career congressman with few laws under his belt, surprisingly won the presidency in 2018, there has effectively been no right-wing in Brazil, only the far-right Bolsonarismo movement.
Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies the new Brazilian right, believes that the fact that three Bolsonaros are now potentially excluded could trigger a “shift of power” away from blood ties.
“I think there is a tendency in power to move away from the sons,” Rocha said, noting that before the election, polls showed that Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters preferred other potential candidates over his eldest son, including Jair Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, recently elected senator, and São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas.
Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly did not want to run because he thought a presidential campaign would turn his life into “hell” and believed his re-election to the Senate was assured. But with Eduardo, his father’s “plan A”, now living in the United States, the senator was chosen to run.
Most observers agree that Flávio lacks his father’s charisma. He had a 24-year political career in which he passed very few laws as a state legislator and senator, and the only time he ran for executive office was for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when he fainted during a televised debate and finished fourth.
Even in a family often embroiled in legal troubles, he stood out, facing long-standing criminal allegations, including suspicions that he embezzled some of his staff’s salaries, as well as more recent accusations.
Nevertheless, 48.21% of Brazilians voted for Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, which many analysts consider both an anti-Lula vote and a vote for choosing Jair Bolsonaro.
Inácio believes the fight for Bolsonaro’s legacy will also play out among family members left in Brazil, including Michelle and Bolsonaro’s other political sons, senator-elect Carlos Bolsonaro and deputy-elect Jair Renan Bolsonaro, who do not publicly get along with their mother-in-law.
“Michelle clearly has her own political project, but she risks encountering strong resistance from the two sons-in-law present at the congress. It is only a matter of time before tensions between them increase,” said the political scientist.
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