Flávio Bolsonaro’s passport cancelled after he fails to surrender it, and reports say the defeated candidate has fled Brazil

Flávio Bolsonaro’s passport was cancelled after he failed to surrender it to federal police by a court-ordered deadline tied to a money-laundering investigation that he denies. Multiple Brazilian news outlets report the defeated presidential candidate has fled the country.

Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s run-off to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won 51.79% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 48.21%. He trailed by 4.4 million votes. He has not conceded defeat. He has called for the election to be annulled, arguing that a two-hour extension of polling on election day disadvantaged him. He called the extension, which was requested by both his party and Lula’s party and ordered by a Supreme Court justice, a “dirty trick.” The Liberal Party accepted the result, though it said the extension “merits investigation.”

Reports of a flight to Florida

Metrópoles, citing people close to the family, reported that Bolsonaro was en route to the United States. “The plane is in flight,” Metrópoles reported, without making clear where it had departed from. Allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and planned to request political asylum. CNN Brasil reported that he fled with his wife and two daughters in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Allies told Folha de S.Paulo that the escape was “organized and enabled by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan.” “They say the flight should land in a few hours,” Folha added. Metrópoles also reported that “The Donald Trump administration has been informed.”

Infobae reported that on Monday night Bolsonaro fled to Argentina and was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the US, but the plane did not take off. Todo Noticias reported that he crossed the border into Argentina on foot and abandoned the plane plan after news of his movements leaked. Argentine authorities have no record of him entering through any regular border crossing. Federal police are checking border crossings to determine whether he left the country. On Monday, Bolsonaro posted a video in which he said: “I never thought about leaving the country.” His brother Eduardo said in an interview last Friday that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost. Bolsonaro has not been seen since Monday.

Mounting investigations

The Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro on Monday to surrender his passport within 24 hours. The deadline was 11am Tuesday. He did not appear. The order was tied to a money-laundering scheme worth about £680m ($905m) involving betting companies, which Bolsonaro denies. He was already under investigation for alleged corruption over the financing of a film about his father. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered police to probe his electoral campaign over alleged foreign funding. O Globo reported that during a Monday meeting with friends and lawyers, Bolsonaro appeared “possessed and made it clear he was afraid of being arrested.”

Bolsonaro is a senator. He is 45 years old. He had stated he would stay in Brazil to lead the opposition to Lula. He faces longstanding criminal allegations, including suspicions that he embezzled part of his staff’s salaries.

A family under legal pressure

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president and family patriarch, is under house arrest after being convicted in connection with plotting a coup. Eduardo Bolsonaro is in the United States and has an outstanding arrest warrant in Brazil after being sentenced to four years in prison for trying to interfere in his father’s trial by lobbying Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the justices. The whereabouts of another Bolsonaro son are unclear. Michelle Bolsonaro was recently elected senator. Carlos Bolsonaro is a senator-elect, and Jair Renan Bolsonaro is a congressman-elect. Carlos and Jair Renan publicly do not get along with Michelle.

A reluctant candidate

Flávio reportedly did not want to run for president, believing a campaign would turn his life into “hell” and that his re-election to the senate was assured. Eduardo was Jair’s “plan A” as a presidential candidate, but with Eduardo in the US, Flávio was chosen. He had a 24-year political career in which he passed very few laws as a state legislator and senator. His only previous run for executive office was for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when he fainted during a televised debate and finished in fourth place. Pre-election polls showed Jair Bolsonaro supporters preferred Michelle Bolsonaro and São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas over Flávio. He won the first round on 4 October. Lula became the first presidential candidate to overturn a first-round loss to win the second round.

The right after Bolsonaro

Since Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency in 2018, there has been effectively no right wing in Brazil, only the far-right Bolsonarismo movement. “The resistance of Brazilian voters to handing victory to this more extremist camp sends a signal that the right leadership is now up for grabs,” said Magna Inácio, a political scientist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies Brazil’s new right, said: “I think there is a tendency for power to move away from the sons.” Inácio added: “Michelle clearly has a political project of her own, but she is likely to face strong resistance from the two stepsons who are in congress. It is only a matter of time before tensions between them grow.”