The man who was supposed to become Brazil’s next president is now living out of a suitcase in Florida. Flávio Bolsonaro, beaten by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s run-off, arrived on Wednesday morning at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport together with his wife Fernanda and their two daughters. Only two days earlier the senator had insisted he would stay put. “I have never thought about leaving the country,” he said on Monday.
His exit took a winding path. Late on Tuesday the family crossed the Tancredo Neves bridge from Foz do Iguaçu into the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazú, where migration officials said every document presented was in order. According to CNN Brasil, the senator used his Italian passport for that crossing. Around half an hour later a jet chartered from Baires Fly took off, stopped in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to refuel and then headed north.
What makes the trip explosive is the paperwork used at the American border. Public entry records from US Customs and Border Protection list his Brazilian diplomatic passport, a document the Federal Police had cancelled the day before. Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered that step after Bolsonaro ignored a 24-hour deadline to hand in both his ordinary and diplomatic passports in a money-laundering inquiry. He denies any wrongdoing.
The Trump administration had already rolled out the welcome mat. The State Department promised visas for the whole family, and Donald Trump said on Wednesday he approved of the move. Lula, who has accused Washington of conspiring to put the Bolsonaros back in power, is unlikely to see it as a friendly gesture.
Many Brazilians will recall a similar flight in 2022, when Jair Bolsonaro decamped to Florida after his own defeat; he was later handed a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup. His son’s protection is running out too, since his parliamentary immunity ends with his Senate term in February.
