Bolsonaro flees Brazil after losing election, newspaper says

Daniel Carvalho and Manuela Tobias, Bloomberg News on Oct 27, 2026

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BRASILIA, Brazil — Flávio Bolsonaro fled Brazil after losing its presidential election and being ordered to surrender his passports, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported, citing allies of the right-wing senator who is subject to multiple criminal investigations.

Bolsonaro is en route to the U.S. and is likely to land in either Dallas or Miami, the newspaper said, adding that President Donald Trump’s administration is aware of the plans. Neither the White House nor a spokesman for Bolsonaro’s campaign responded to requests for comment.

The son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio failed to surrender his documents to Federal Police on Tuesday, according to a police official familiar with the situation. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whom the Bolsonaro family has long accused of political persecution, ordered him to do so on Monday amid concerns the senator posed a flight risk.

Bolsonaro’s loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s runoff election dealt a massive setback to a family that had sought to cement a political dynasty in Brazil. The senator had made freeing his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss, a central theme of his campaign.

His whereabouts were unknown to police or allies on Tuesday morning after Infobae reported that he had crossed into Argentina and planned to travel to the U.S from there. Brazil police have no official record of Bolsonaro leaving Brazil, and the press secretary for Argentina President Javier Milei denied that he’d entered the country.

Multiple Bolsonaro allies told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that they tried to contact him but had not heard back. The saga has set social media alight with memes referring to Bolsonaro as “Flyvio,” comparing him to Carmen Sandiego or Where’s Waldo? Others have altered the conservative slogan, “God, Country and Family” to “Goodbye, Country and Family.”

Bolsonaro is facing at least two federal investigations into allegations of money laundering, one of which stems from his links to the former Banco Master SA owner caught in Brazil’s biggest-ever bank fraud case. He’s denied wrongdoing.

His actions since the Sunday vote had evoked those of his father even before the reports he was leaving Brazil. He initially said he would request the annulment of the results due to a Supreme Court decision to extend voting hours, echoing Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept his narrow loss to Lula four years ago.

Jair Bolsonaro left Brazil for the U.S. after the defeat. He returned months later and was subsequently barred from holding public office for eight years for spreading false claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system ahead of the election, then convicted of plotting a coup.

Supreme Court drama

Flávio Bolsonaro backed down on his plans to seek annulment of the results Monday, publishing a social media video in which he said the Supreme Court had barred him from leaving Brazil. He said the move followed comments by his brother Eduardo, who said on a podcast that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost the election.

Moraes’ decision irritated officials in Lula’s government as well as some members of the Supreme Court, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.

Lula’s administration had wanted to focus on efforts to pacify the country and move past the polarization that has exploded during back-to-back election battles between the leftist leader and a member of the Bolsonaro family, the people said. It viewed the move from Moraes, a controversial judge who oversaw Jair Bolsonaro’s trial and has long drawn charges of censorship from the Brazilian right, as counter to those aims.

Earlier Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered federal authorities to open an investigation into possible illegal foreign financing of Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, including by a group linked to US Vice President JD Vance.

The justice stressed that the order doesn’t establish that illegal foreign financing occurred, but said allegations leveled during Brazil’s presidential race warrant an investigation. Vance’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Argentina’s spokesman, Adrian Ravier, said there had been no request for asylum in Argentina from Bolsonaro during a press conference Tuesday.

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