Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly flees Brazil to US after missing passport deadline
Far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly left Brazil after losing Sunday's presidential election and failing to hand his passport to federal police.
Flávio Bolsonaro reported on flight to US after court cancels his passport
Far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and is heading to the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election to leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, theguardian.com reports.
The news website Metrópoles, citing sources close to the politician's family, said Bolsonaro was en route to the US. "The plane is in flight," the outlet reported, without specifying where the aircraft had departed from.
Bolsonaro had not been seen publicly since Monday and missed an 11am Tuesday deadline to surrender his passport to the federal police, fuelling speculation that he had already left the country following his election defeat.
Passport cancelled by supreme court justice
A supreme court justice cancelled Bolsonaro's passport within minutes of the election result being confirmed, in a ruling connected to an ongoing criminal case against the senator. He had been given until Tuesday morning to hand the document to the federal police, but did not appear.
Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported that during a meeting with friends and lawyers on Monday, the defeated candidate appeared "possessed and made it clear he was afraid of being arrested."
Argentinian news website Infobae reported that Bolsonaro initially fled to Argentina on Monday night, where he was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the US. The plane did not take off, however. Argentina's Todo Noticias channel later reported that he had crossed the border on foot and abandoned the plan once news of his movements leaked to the press.
The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported that allies within the Bolsonaro family's inner circle had been told he had left for Argentina with the intention of travelling on to the US.
As there is no record of him passing through any regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, federal police are working to establish from Argentinian authorities whether any record exists of him entering the country.
Money-laundering investigation
Bolsonaro was ordered to surrender his passport in connection with a criminal investigation in which federal police are examining his possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme worth approximately £680m ($905m) linked to betting companies.
In a video posted on Monday, the senator commented on the cancellation of his passport and insisted: "I never thought about leaving the country."
One of his brothers, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro — currently in self-imposed exile in the United States — had said in an interview last Friday that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost the election. Eduardo himself has an outstanding arrest warrant in Brazil after being sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to interfere in his father's trial by lobbying Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the justices hearing the case.
A family and a movement in disarray
The senator's reported departure leaves the future of the Brazilian far right in considerable uncertainty. Family patriarch Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest for attempting a coup, Eduardo is in the US, and Flávio's whereabouts remain unclear.
Political scientist Magna Inácio, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, said the election outcome exposed a leadership vacuum on the right. "The resistance of Brazilian voters to handing victory to this more extremist camp sends a signal that the right leadership is now up for grabs," she said.
Since Jair Bolsonaro unexpectedly won the presidency in 2018 as a career congressman with few legislative achievements to his name, there has effectively been no conventional right wing in Brazil — only the far-right Bolsonarismo movement.
Political scientist Camila Rocha, who studies Brazil's new right, believes the potential absence of three Bolsonaro men from the political stage could trigger a shift in power away from the family's bloodline. "I think there is a tendency for power to move away from the sons," Rocha said, noting that pre-election polls showed Jair Bolsonaro's supporters preferred other potential candidates over Flávio, including the patriarch's wife Michelle Bolsonaro — recently elected senator — and São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas.
A reluctant candidate who fell short
Flávio Bolsonaro was reportedly unenthusiastic about running for president, having concluded that a campaign would make his life "hell" and believing his senate re-election was assured. He was selected to run after Eduardo, regarded as the family's preferred option, relocated to the US.
His 24-year political career yielded few pieces of legislation as either a state legislator or senator. The only previous time he had stood for executive office was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro mayoral race, in which he fainted during a televised debate and finished fourth.
Even within a family frequently embroiled in legal difficulty, Flávio stood out, having faced longstanding criminal allegations including suspicions that he embezzled portions of his staff's salaries, in addition to more recent accusations.
Despite those liabilities, 48.21% of Brazilians voted for him on Sunday — a result many analysts interpret as both an anti-Lula vote and an endorsement of whomever Jair Bolsonaro had designated as his heir.
Inácio expects the contest over the Bolsonaro legacy to continue among family members who remain in Brazil, including Michelle and two of Bolsonaro's other political sons — senator-elect Carlos Bolsonaro and congressman-elect Jair Renan Bolsonaro — who are publicly at odds with their stepmother. "Michelle clearly has a political project of her own, but she is likely to face strong resistance from the two stepsons who are in congress. It is only a matter of time before tensions between them grow," Inácio said.
Source: The Sun