Flávio Bolsonaro leaves Brazil for the US after election defeat, as Washington says it will grant visas

Brazil's defeated presidential candidate has left the country for the United States just two days after losing a runoff election he had been favoured to win, according to reports from Reuters, CNN and Al Jazeera on Tuesday 27 October 2026 — and Washington has said it will let him in. The departure, in defiance of a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports, turns a domestic election defeat into a diplomatic row between the two largest countries in the Americas. Read more: Lula wins fourth term in Brazil as Trump calls the vote "rigged" and the loser refuses to concede

Reuters reported on Tuesday afternoon, citing three sources, that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro had left Brazil for the United States after losing Sunday's runoff, having refused to comply with the Supreme Court order. A senior State Department official told Reuters: "The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States." CNN reported separately that President Donald Trump had approved allowing Bolsonaro entry, citing a Trump adviser, and that administration officials knew on Monday that Bolsonaro had roughly 24 hours to surrender his passport and had made clear he would be allowed into the US. Neither the US Embassy in Brazil nor Bolsonaro's lawyer responded to Reuters' requests for comment, and Lula's office did not respond either.

The key figures

Key figures

Measure	Figure	Source
Lula's share in the 25 October runoff	51.79%	Official result, via Reuters / USA Today
Lula's margin over Bolsonaro	More than 4.4 million votes	Reuters / Al Jazeera
Deadline to surrender passports	24 hours from 26 October	Supreme Court order, via Reuters / CNN
Bolsonaro's Senate term ends	February	Reuters
Father Jair Bolsonaro's sentence	27 years, for plotting a coup	Court sentence, via Reuters / CNN
Father's stay in the US after the 2022 loss	Three months, in Orlando, Florida	CNN

How the departure unfolded

The order Bolsonaro defied was made on Monday 26 October, when Justice Alexandre de Moraes gave him 24 hours to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports. Reuters reported that the court ruling cited the risk of Bolsonaro fleeing Brazil and his "significant financial resources". The ruling relates to a money-laundering probe; Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing. On Monday he said publicly that he had no plans to flee. "I have never thought about leaving the country," he said, according to Reuters. "I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me." By Tuesday the deadline had lapsed, the Federal Police had cancelled his passports, and reports of his departure were circulating — catching his own campaign manager by surprise. Senator Rogério Marinho told reporters: "We are surprised by the news because, just yesterday, we discussed the need for Flavio — given the 60 million votes he received — to take on this role as leader of the opposition."

How he left remains unexplained. A senior Federal Police official told Reuters that Bolsonaro had not exited the country via any regular migration point. The Argentine news outlet Infobae reported that he had travelled via Argentina, but Argentina's government said in a statement that it had "no record of Flávio Bolsonaro entering" the country. One source close to the family told Reuters he had landed in Florida, but declined to say where, while a person familiar with the situation told CNN on Tuesday afternoon that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US, with the landing place unclear. His brother Eduardo, who lives in the United States, had said before the vote that an election loss would require a move — but on Tuesday he called rumours that his brother had fled a "lie". At the time of his departure, CNN reported, there were no warrants for his arrest, although legal analysts said defying the passport order could itself be grounds for a warrant.

The legal case behind the order

The passport order sits inside a wider set of investigations. CNN reported that Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil's highest court for alleged corruption, money laundering and currency evasion, and that one allegation concerns potential illegal online betting platforms while another concerns the financing of a biopic about his father, "Dark Horse", which federal police believe involved funds from Banco Master, a collapsed bank at the heart of a $7 billion Ponzi-like scheme in 2025. Bolsonaro denies all wrongdoing. The stakes of the case rise sharply in February, when his Senate term ends and with it his immunity from prosecution — a timetable that, Reuters noted, gives the investigation a clear horizon. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, followed a similar path after refusing to concede defeat to Lula in 2022: he travelled to Orlando, Florida, stayed three months, and later returned to Brazil, where he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasília.

What happens next

What is confirmed so far is narrow: the defeated candidate has left Brazil, Washington says it will let him in, and his exact whereabouts are still unconfirmed. What comes next depends on three confirmations to watch for: a formal statement of Bolsonaro's location, any arrest warrant issued over the defied passport order, and the fate of his promised challenge to the election result, which his own party has already undercut by acknowledging Lula's victory. Lula, speaking at an event in Brasília to mark his 81st birthday, gave the political verdict first. "I regret that he fled Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proved that the accusations are not true," he said, according to The Times. "This is what the Bolsonaro family is like," he added. "Brazil is their second nation, the US is their first." Trump, for his part, made no mention of the departure in comments to the press on Monday, but said the Brazilian vote "looked like another rigged election" — a claim for which, Al Jazeera noted, no evidence has emerged. Europe Unfolded will report Bolsonaro's confirmed location, any warrant, and any formal US statement when they are confirmed, not the rumours that precede them.

Updates & corrections

Published 28 October 2026.

No updates or corrections have been made to this article since publication.

Sources

• Reuters, via The Straits Times, 27 October 2026, on the departure, the State Department visas, the passport cancellation, the flight-risk ruling and the February end of immunity: straitstimes.com
• CNN, 27 October 2026, on Trump approving entry, the visas, the Argentina denial, the absence of an arrest warrant and the biopic allegation: cnn.com
• Al Jazeera, 27 October 2026, on the State Department visa statement, Lula's "shameful" remark, the party's acceptance of the result and the 4.4-million-vote margin: aljazeera.com
• USA Today, 27 October 2026, on the two US officials, the 51.79% result and Lula's birthday remarks: usatoday.com
• The Times, 27 October 2026, on Lula's birthday-event remarks and the reported flight: thetimes.com

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