Like father, like son: How Flavio Bolsonaro followed Jair’s footsteps fleeing election defeat for the US

He was the natural successor to his divisive father, and just weeks ago looked to be a shoo-in to return the Brazilian far-right to power.But Flavio Bolsonaro’s failure to beat Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last weekend has ended in a similar fashion to that of his father Jair in 2022: escape to the USA and a baseless declaration that he is the rightful president. The left-wing incumbent president maintained his perfect electoral record against the Bolsonaros on Sunday, trouncing Flavio by more than four million votes in a stunning comeback that defied the odds after losing the first round. But Bolsonaro Jr has refused to concede defeat and fled to Miami, reportedly on a small charter jet arranged by the Trump administration according to the Wall Street Journal. Flavio Bolsonaro, pictured with his father Jair, claims there was an electoral coup against him (AFP/Getty)The 45-year-old senator, who left the country in defiance of a court order for him to surrender his passports amid an ongoing corruption investigation, is now planning to lead a political operation in exile from the US, the WSJ reports. Flavio had spent two days threatening to seek an annulment of the election result, claiming he was the victim of an electoral coup masterminded by Brazil’s supreme court. In his first statement since departure issued on Wednesday, he declared himself “the elected president”.Along with his wife and two daughters, he crossed into Argentina’s Puerto Iguazu, before being escorted by Argentinian airport security police to the immigration checkpoint in an operation led by Argentinian president and fellow Trump ally Javier Milei. A private jet escorted them, via a refuelling stop in Ecuador, to Miami, where they were rushed into an SUV waiting at the airport. One day later, Flavio would address the Brazilian nation in a letter. “I did not flee Brazil, I left for the sake of Brazil,” he wrote. Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami after his election defeat (Getty)“I left a regime of exception so that I could be the leader my people deserve. Silenced, imprisoned and censored like my father, I would not be able to provide that leadership, and we would be handed over to the institutional theatre of an opposition that is shackled and controlled by a Supreme Court filled with servants of the regime.”Donald Trump, who has long been a staunch ally of the Bolsonaros and had hoped to see Flavio become the latest in a wave of hard-right figures to gain power in South America, said he “approves” of Bolsonaro coming to the US, saying of he and his father: “I think they're fine people.” The election, the US president said, was a “disgrace” and a “very great embarrassment to the people of Brazil”. Trump never formally endorsed Bolsonaro ahead of the election, but it was thanks to the support of Trump’s allies in Latin America he was able to make it across the border safely.Arriving in Miami with his wife and two daughters, Bolsonaro thanked Argentine leader Javier Milei for helping him make the journey. Flavio hid under umbrellas as he got into an SUV in Miami (Reuters)After insisting they had no record of Flavio entering the country, Argentina on Tuesday confirmed the family had already passed through and taken a private flight on to Guayaquil. Flight tracking data showed it landing in Ecuador at 5:46am on Wednesday.Ecuador, led by right-wing strongman Daniel Noboa, has found a natural ally in the United States under the Trump administration. And Argentina, too, benefitted from Washington’s help when Trump late last year offered president Milei a $20bn lifeline to help its flailing economy.Policy analyst Michael Shifter told El Pais the Bolsonaro case was more evidence of an emerging bloc of right-leaning countries across Latin America willing to disregard international treaties to avoid angering Washington.“It’s a network behaving identically to Trump’s, where international law has no relevance,” he said. “The U.S. administration feels no respect for it and the Bolsonaro case is further proof. This creates a contagion effect among his regional allies, who choose to ignore legality.”Brazil’s president Lula da Silva won by more than four million votes (AFP/Getty)In now offering refuge to Flavio, Trump has further deepened the bond between the two political families, a relationship that has had monumental consequences for Brazil - not least in the high tariffs the US imposed on Brazil over its treatment of Jair. The entire affair harks back to the 2022 election, when Jair fled for Florida just days before Lula’s swearing-in ceremony in late December after he lost by two million votes. Reports in Brazil at the time said Jair planned to spend New Year’s Eve at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Following his election and before departing for the states, Bolsonaro’s his inner circle and Trump’s closest advisers - including Steve Bannon and Jason Miller - worked together to strategise on his next steps, the Washington Post reported. After arriving in the US, he would reside in the Orlando suburban holiday home of Brazilian MMA fighter José Aldo, and the following events would lead to his conviction on multiple felony counts - including attempted coup d’état and leading an armed criminal organisation - and a 27-year prison sentence. Bolsonaro supporters invaded the National Congress on January 8 (AFP/Getty)On January 8 2023, thousands of Jair’s supporters stormed the National Congress, Supreme Court and Planalto Palace as they sought an emergency military intervention to overhaul the election result. It later emerged the former president had been plotting with senior military officials to forcefully remain in power and carry out a re-run of the election if he lost. Jair Bolsonaro returned home in March that year, and seven months later he was convicted for abuse of power. Barred from running for any Brazilian office for eight years, a further trial in 2025 saw him jailed that September for 27 years over a coup plot to overthrown Lula. The former president is currently under house arrest after he was hospitalized for bronchopneumonia. Unable to lead the country again until 2030 at the earliest, Jair’s son Flavio would next step into the fray, announcing his candidacy for the presidency in December 2025. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro to Jair and his first wife, former city councillor Rogeria Nantes Braga Bolsonaro, Flavio graduated with a bachelor of law degree at the Candido Mendes University.“Let’s go, it’s you,” his father told him from behind the walls of his prison cell, as he handed over the baton to represent the Brazilian right. Jair had spent decades on the congressional backbenches representing Rio de Janeiro, before his presidential rise in 2018 capitalising on a huge wave of public anger over a series of corruption scandals which saw Lula imprisoned - before the convictions were later annulled.Jair Bolsonaro with his sons Flavio (left) and Eduardo (Family photo)He was renowned for making bizarre, false, and often highly offensive statements, including that the Covid-19 vaccine would turn people into crocodiles and he wouldn’t be capable of loving a homosexual son Flavio, despite appearing the spitting image of his father, sought to be less bombastic in his rhetoric. “I’m grounded — more inclined toward dialogue and to build bridges,” he told The Washington Post in April. “I’m the Bolsonaro you always wanted.”He is a “much more moderate” version of his father, Latin America expert at Chatham House Dr Chris Sabatini told The Independent. “He’s less openly misogynistic and racist than his father.“So he’s sort of his father without the rough edges, but oddly enough, still with that outsider candidate appeal that voters in Latin America are looking for right now.”Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after losing run-off election against Lula (Reuters)But his refusal of the electoral result is, however, straight out of the Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump playbook. Flavio is also not without his own scandals. He is being investigated over alleged money laundering and corruption linked to his financial ties to lawyer Willer Tomaz and his funding for the biographical film about his father, entitled Dark Horse.The probe into the senator was opened in July by Supreme Court Justice Andre Mendonca, a Bolsonaro appointee who has recently been hailed as a hero by many on Brazil’s right, including Flavio himself.It was this probe, and the resulting demand for him to surrender his passport, which prompted Flavio to flee to the US. With the corruption case ongoing and a lack of clarity on when he will return, it appears the Bolsonaro saga will remain at the front of Brazilian politics whether the family is in power or not.