Yet Another Defeated Bolsonaro Flees to the United States

Buda Mendes/Getty Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. In December 2022, two days before the end of his tenure and after losing his reelection bid, Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro flew to the United States. Skipping the traditional transfer of power ceremony at President-Elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s inauguration, Bolsonaro settled in Florida and eventually enjoyed a retiree‘s lifestyle at the home of an MMA fighter in Kissimmee. Meanwhile, his supporters back home emulated the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, ransacking federal government buildings. The elder Bolsonaro returned to Brazil after three months and was later convicted of a failed coup attempt that included a plot to assassinate Lula. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, time he is serving at home due to health issues. Now, days after Lula’s surprise victory in the 2026 presidential elections, another member of the Bolsonaro family is reportedly seeking refuge in America. According to media reports, Flávio Bolsonaro has left Brazil headed to the United States, where he’s rumored to be asking the friendly government of President Donald Trump for asylum. Much like his father, Flávio refused to concede defeat and initially said he would seek to annul the results. (His own party later recognized Lula’s win.) For the first time in 24 years, since he was first elected a state lawmaker in 2022, the aspiring Bolsonaro successor and senator faced the prospect of being out of public office, and with it, losing the special immunity officeholders enjoy. Flávio’s departure defies an order by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes prohibiting the defeated candidate from leaving the country and instructing him to surrender his passports. The ruling is connected to an investigation into Flávio’s alleged participation in a money-laundering scheme. (He’s also being investigated as part of a probe into the financing of a biopic of his father.) By Tuesday morning, the younger Bolsonaro had missed the deadline to hand over his travel documents, and the Brazilian federal police were looking into whether he had left the country via Argentina. That Flávio would make a getaway to the United States doesn’t come as a surprise, and not only because of his father’s stint in the Sunshine State. America has become the default destination for several Bolsonaro or Bolsonaro-adjacent figures on the radar of Brazilian authorities, including the grandson of a former military dictator and a far-right influencer once described as “the fake-news kingpin of Brazil” who is considered to be a fugitive from justice. Chiefly among them is Flávio’s brother, Eduardo, a key go-between of the Brazilian far right and Trump’s circle who’s been “self-exiled” in the United States since early 2025. Earlier this month, Justice Moraes issued an arrest warrant for Eduardo, who was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for “coercion” in his efforts to interfere in his father’s criminal trial by lobbying the Trump administration. Eduardo, a Texas-based MAGA darling who was stripped of his congressional seat in Brazil, has pushed for the US government to impose tariffs on Brazilian goods and sanctions against authorities like Moraes, and to designate two criminal groups—Comando Vermelho and PCC—as terrorist organizations. Ahead of Sunday’s runoff, Eduardo said on a US podcast that his brother should leave the country if he lost the election. A US official reportedly told CNN that Flávio was flying to Florida, but his actual whereabouts remain unknown—much like the political future of the Bolsonaro family and their grip on the Brazilian right.