Argentina’s right-wing government has confirmed that it helped Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro flee the country after his election loss to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was reportedly involved in the operation.
Bolsonaro was ordered to surrender his passports on Monday, less than 24 hours after his narrow runoff election loss to Lula. The passports were canceled on Tuesday, after he failed to surrender them to authorities. Media reports claimed that he had fled to the US earlier that day, but no outlet could confirm that he had left the country.
“We still don’t have any news about his whereabouts,” Bolsonaro’s campaign manager told AFP on Tuesday.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Argentina’s National Directorate of Migration (DNM) confirmed that Bolsonaro, his wife, and his two daughters entered Argentina via a border checkpoint near the town of Puerto Iguazu, shortly before 11pm on Tuesday. Bolsonaro crossed the border “with valid travel documentation and without any legal impediment to entering the country,” the agency stated.
It is unclear if Bolsonaro crossed the border using his national identity card, or with his Italian passport, as he has held Italian citizenship since 2023.
Once in Argentina, the Bolsonaro family boarded a private jet bound for Ecuador, the DNM stated. Argentinian President Javier Milei and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa are both right-wing allies of Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro and his family were seen arriving in Florida on Wednesday, where the State Department has told AP that it will grant visas to him and his family. While the State Department has not admitted any role in helping Bolsonaro flee Brazil, Mexican entrepreneur Simon Levy, who describes himself as “proud to serve President Trump and MAGA,” claimed on Tuesday that the entire operation was “coordinated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”
Rubio has not commented on Levy’s claims. However, Rubio and Trump are both political allies of Bolsonaro. Rubio’s State Department sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes last year over his role in jailing Bolsonaro’s father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in 2022, and over his censorship of American social media platforms. Moraes is a close political ally of Lula.
Bolsonaro’s passports were canceled in connection with an ongoing corruption and money laundering probe. Despite Moraes being named in the same investigation, Lula warned Bolsonaro earlier this month that he would “be in a lot of trouble” if he lost the election, threatening him with “plenty of investigations.”
It is unclear how the US intends to respond to Lula’s election win. Trump has suggested that the election “had a very bad look…the way it was tabulated.” After claiming that Rubio aided in Bolsonaro’s flight, Levy made a cryptic post on X, saying “get ready for tomorrow…”
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