US to Grant Visa to Brazil's Flávio Bolsonaro After Election Loss

The United States will grant visas to Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family, a senior State Department official told the Daily Mail. The announcement comes after Bolsonaro fled Brazil following his loss to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday's election.

Bolsonaro's departure from Brazil followed advice from his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who resides in Texas and had publicly encouraged Flávio to leave Brazil if he lost the election. A spokesperson for Flávio Bolsonaro did not respond to requests for comment, and his campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, also declined to comment.

Flávio Bolsonaro's decision to leave Brazil occurred as a deadline for him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether he complied with the order, which was issued Monday, the day after his election defeat. Bolsonaro reportedly received the order outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a sentence under house arrest.

Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida after his 2022 election loss to Lula and returned three months later. The younger Bolsonaro has refused to concede his recent defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. He had initially sought to have the election results annulled.

On Monday, Flávio Bolsonaro urged the electoral court to investigate alleged fraud and nullify Lula's and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin's candidacies, a move the electoral court has not previously undertaken. Bolsonaro stated in a social media video that he had no intention of leaving Brazil and planned to organize opposition to the election results among his congressional colleagues. His eight-year term as a senator is set to expire on January 31, 2027.

Bolsonaro is currently under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion in two separate cases. Prosecutors suspect that funds related to one investigation were used to cover expenses for his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro's political agenda with the Trump administration.

Reports from Brazilian media indicated that many allies of Bolsonaro were unable to reach him. A spokesperson for Argentina's Ministry of Security denied reports that the Brazilian senator had entered their country. Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally living in the United States, declined to comment directly on the senator's whereabouts.