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Archive photo · 23 January 2025Marco Rubio Says U.S. Not Directly Involved in Flávio Bolsonaro’s Flight From Brazil
4 Local Western4 Western Mainstream2 Other3 Other source typesPhoto: U.S. Department of State / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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U.S. not directly involved in Bolsonaro’s departure, Rubio says. Bolsonaro left Brazil via Argentina and Ecuador to reach Miami.
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13 outlets told this the same way.
Rubio denies direct role
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was not directly involved in Flavio Bolsonaro’s arrangements to leave Brazil after the right-wing candidate lost his bid to be president in Sunday’s (October 25, 2026) run-off vote.
Rubio told a press conference in Atlanta, Georgia, that “the U.S. government was not involved directly” in arrangements Bolsonaro made to leave his country, and he added that “He had previously held a visa, and the President made a decision to allow him to enter the country,”.
Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called in Argentina’s charge d’affaires, Maria Emilia Cortes, to answer questions about Bolsonaro, who fled first to Argentina and then to the United States after losing the election.
Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday (October 28, 2026) with his family after a court ordered his passports be seized amid multiple investigations against him, and he later claimed to be the true leader of Brazil while saying he left because he was a victim of “persecution.”
Persecution claim and flight
Flavio Bolsonaro justified his flight by telling supporters that “The persecution started even earlier than I imagined,” during an Instagram livestream where he discussed his decision to flee after his Brazilian passports were canceled as part of a money laundering investigation. Bolsonaro recounted that police told him his passports were being withdrawn after a visit to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, and he said his father told him, “You already know where they’re trying to go with this, right?”
Bolsonaro said he and his wife made the decision “without anyone knowing” and urged people not to “point the finger at anyone,” while he also insisted, “I did not leave Brazil, I left for Brazil.” The reporting tied the route to travel via Argentina and Ecuador, and it described Bolsonaro arriving in Florida on Wednesday aboard a private jet after leaving Brazil secretly on Tuesday.
Diplomatic strain and pressure
Brazil summoned Argentina’s top diplomat to answer questions about Bolsonaro’s flight, and the dispute threatened to further strain relations between Brazil’s recently re-elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei.
Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno denied on social media that his government received a formal request for explanations, even as Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called in Argentina’s charge d’affaires, Maria Emilia Cortes, according to sources inside the government.
In the United States, Democratic lawmakers asked the Trump administration to provide explanations, and a letter circulated by Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove framed the “central question” as whether the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, or any other U.S. government agency helped Bolsonaro travel or enter the country.
The sources also tied the episode to Bolsonaro’s refusal to concede after Lula won with 51.8 percent of the vote, and they noted that Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for plotting a coup after his 2022 re-election loss.