South Americaupdated 4h ago2 min read
Brazil Investigates Flávio Bolsonaro’s Argentina Exit After Supreme Court Passport Order
“Federal officers are checking border crossings to establish if Bolsonaro may have travelled to neighbouring Argentina, according to a police source consulted by BBC News Brasil.”
“allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and planned to request political asylum.”
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to surrender passports; police canceled them and imposed travel ban. Bolsonaro left Brazil for United States; State Department granted visas for him and his family.
Passports, travel ban, exit
Brazilian authorities canceled Flávio Bolsonaro’s passports after he failed to surrender them within a Supreme Court order tied to an investigation into alleged money laundering, and the deadline expired Tuesday. The Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to hand his passports over to police within 24 hours, and police opened an investigation to verify whether he left Brazil via Argentina to fly to the United States.
A senior US State Department official said “the State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” after multiple outlets reported Bolsonaro had fled Brazil following his loss to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The BBC said Argentine authorities told it there was “no record of Bolsonaro entering their country through any border crossing,” while Brazilian federal officers checked border crossings to establish whether he traveled to neighboring Argentina.
Competing accounts and denials
Brazilian police said they were checking whether Bolsonaro exited Brazil, and the BBC reported that Argentine authorities told it there was no record of him entering Argentina through any border crossing. Senator Rogério Marinho denied that Bolsonaro left the country, telling Metrópoles on Tuesday, “He did not leave.”
Lula attacked Bolsonaro’s actions, saying “Leaving Brazil is shameful,” while adding that he did not have “precise information” on the matter. Donald Trump cast doubt on the election result, telling reporters it “looked like another rigged election,” as Bolsonaro had refused to concede and sought annulment after the Supreme Court extended voting by two hours.
Investigations and political fallout
The Supreme Court ordered the Federal Police to open an investigation against Flávio Bolsonaro for alleged foreign funding of his campaign and for manipulation of the algorithm on social networks to favor his content, with Supreme Court judge Flávio Dino saying it was “necessary to determine who may have formulated such a proposal.” Courthouse News said De Moraes barred Bolsonaro from traveling abroad, ordered him to surrender his passports within 24 hours, and barred him from contacting Willer Tomaz, as the travel ban was imposed as part of a criminal investigation into Bolsonaro’s ties to Tomaz.
Courthouse News reported that investigators were examining a proposed $24 million contribution to “Dark Horse,” a film about Bolsonaro’s father, as part of a probe into possible corruption, money laundering and foreign exchange violations. Courthouse News quoted Renato Vieira saying “Fleeing could indicate an intention to avoid serving a potential sentence,” while Rodrigo Brandão said evidence Bolsonaro attempted to flee after learning of the court order could weaken his legal position and strengthen grounds for seeking pretrial detention.