Flávio Bolsonaro lands in Miami after Brazil election defeat and corruption investigation

Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami on Wednesday after departing Brazil.The departure followed 48 hours during which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and threatened to seek an annulment of the election result.His father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later. On Monday, the U.S. announced it would grant visas to the longtime Trump ally and his family.Bolsonaro was at the White House in May. Argentina's migration authority said Wednesday that Bolsonaro fled from Brazil through Argentina and Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, one day after the 45-year-old senator and his family received visas from the Trump administration.Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court over alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. The court ordered him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday, two days after losing the vote to Lula. It remains unclear if he complied, though allies stated late Tuesday he holds an Italian passport.Argentine officials said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro entered at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. (Getty)They crossed via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a main checkpoint linking Brazil to Argentina’s Misiones province."Those who did so possessed valid travel documentation and faced no legal impediments to entering the country," the Argentine migration authority said on X.The authority stated that at 11:30 p.m. local time, after clearing immigration, the four boarded a Baires Fly S.A. private charter flight bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador.Fernanda Bolsonaro, the wife of Flavio Bolsonaro steps off a plane (AFP/Getty)The move will likely trigger major diplomatic friction between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to support Bolsonaro’s campaign.Tracking from FlightRadar24 showed an aircraft matching Bolsonaro’s route landed in Guayaquil around 4 a.m. local time, departing minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport. The plane carrying Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami at about 9:30 a.m. EST.Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, addressed supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia before the arrival, stating he lacked detailed information on Bolsonaro’s whereabouts but confirmed he had left Brazil."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 U.S.-based Bolsonaro ally, said in a statement he could not confirm foreign reports, adding "Flávio Bolsonaro is well, in security and resting with his family." He said a Thursday press conference in Miami would discuss the case.Representatives for Brazil's government did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.U.S. President Donald Trump said early Wednesday he approved of Bolsonaro coming to the U.S., calling him and his family "fine people."Bolsonaro’s father, Jair, visiting Trump at the White House in 2019 (Getty)"The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, following a Tuesday trip to Texas. He did not elaborate, but stressed he did not endorse the result.World leaders and the Organization of American States, or OAS, endorsed the outcome and congratulated Lula, who won reelection by about 4.4 million votes in the runoff.On Tuesday, Milei's administration spokesman Adrián Ravier said: "There is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add."