Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family are to receive visas allowing them to enter the United States after his defeat in Brazil’s presidential election, a senior US State Department official has said.
Bolsonaro left Brazil after losing Sunday’s run-off to incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to Brazilian media reports. A spokesperson for Bolsonaro and his campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, declined to comment.
The departure came as a deadline to surrender Bolsonaro’s ordinary and diplomatic passports expired at noon on Tuesday. It was not clear whether he had complied with the order.
Bolsonaro was served with the order on Monday, a day after his defeat, outside the home where his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his own 2022 election loss to Lula.
Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, criticised Bolsonaro’s decision to leave the country. “A person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide,” he said. “The act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”
“This is what the Bolsonaro family is like: Brazil is their second nation, the U.S. is the first,” Lula added.
Bolsonaro has highlighted his relationship with Donald Trump and visited the White House in May. Trump did not give him a full endorsement during the run-off, but suggested on Monday, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s election had been “rigged”.
Bolsonaro’s brother Eduardo, who lives in Texas, had publicly urged him to leave Brazil if he lost. Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison; an arrest warrant was recently issued for him.
Lula secured more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4 per cent. Bolsonaro has refused to concede and has made unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.
