Rubio says the US government did not facilitate Bolsonaro’s flight to the United States

ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the Trump administration did not facilitate the candidacy of defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. departure to the USA after his departure Brazil following his electoral defeat against Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro arrived in Miami Wednesday, a day after the State Department said Bolsonaro and his family will obtain American visas after his weekend defeat in a hotly contested race that bucked the trend of conservative election results in Latin America.

“We didn’t make anything easy,” Rubio told reporters in Atlanta, where senior diplomats of the Group of 20 the world’s largest economies were brought together.

“We learned that he had arrived in the United States. He previously held a visa and the president made the decision to allow him into the country,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. government was “not directly involved in any of the actions taken.”

Rubio also said he saw Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday, and that he hoped to see Brazilian officials again in France in November, when France will host a meeting of foreign ministers.

Bolsonaro refused to concede and called the elections fraudulent, without providing evidence. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, also refused to acknowledge his defeat by Lula in 2022 and is in prison. a sentence of 27 years for attempting a coup.

Bolsonaro, who benefited from President Donald Trump’s tacit support during the election, is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and was ordered to surrender his passport after police deemed him a flight risk.

The senator from Rio de Janeiro, who will lose his seat when Brazil’s new legislature opens on February 1, reiterated that he is a victim of persecution in an Instagram live broadcast on Friday.

In a letter published Wednesday, Bolsonaro, 45, declared himself “the true elected president of Brazil” – a term he later softened to “leader.” He compared himself – among other figures – to Charles de Gaulle, who led the French resistance against the Nazi occupation of France from London during World War II.