Flávio Bolsonaro Flees to America After Judge Orders Seizure of His Passports Following Election Defeat

Original article here

Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled to the United States after losing to Socialist President Lula da Silva in the country’s presidential election by 4.4 million votes (51.8 percent to 48.2 percent).

“The plane is in flight, and the final destination would be Florida,” Brazilian online newspaper Metropolis reported Tuesday morning. “The information was confirmed by people close to the parliamentarian’s family.”

Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, initially called for the election to be annulled due to a last-minute two-hour extension of voting hours in a district favorable to Lula. The extension was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin just three minutes before the scheduled 5 p.m. close purportedly because of transportation issues.

But the challenge was considered unlikely to succeed because only 35,000 votes were cast during the extended hours, and the margin of defeat was substantial, the Guardian reported. Bolsonaro effectively conceded defeat on Monday,  after President Donald Trump indicated he would not intervene, despite calling the vote “rigged.”

When asked for his thoughts on the election, Trump told reporters the vote “looked terrible” and “like another rigged election.”

“I didn’t take sides,” Trump said. “Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked very bad to me.”

According to reports, notorious authoritarian Judge Alexandre de Moraes signed an order barring Bolsonaro from leaving the country just seven minutes after Lula was declared the winner on Sunday night.

While there is reportedly a pending investigation into Bolsonaro for alleged money laundering, there have been no charges against him to date. De Moraes ordered the seizure of Bolsonaro passports. The parliamentarian was supposed to hand over the documents Tuesday, but didn’t.

According to Metropoles, Flávio has been missing since Tuesday morning and hadn’t been heard from as of 8:00 am when he sent a  message to his campaign coordinator Rogério Marinho. The senator reportedly said he was “cooling his head”, but did say whether he had left Brazil.

Argentine outlet Infobae reported Bolsonaro arrived in the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazú at 2:00 am on Tuesday, using his national identity card. He was reportedly planning to continue his journey to the United States on a private flight.

According to Infobae, the aircraft was a Gulfstream G400, registration LV-JQW, owned by the company Baires Fly SA, which requested customs clearance for four passengers and three crew members.

The plane left Buenos Aires for Puerto Iguazú on Monday at 10:20 pm.

A Mexican attorney aligned with President Trump claimed on X Tuesday that Bolsonaro had arrived in the United States and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the “mastermind” behind his safe transfer.

Levy said a U.S. protective operation was conducted to ensure Bolsonaro’s safety.

“From the United States, free and safe, Flávio will lead the opposition against Lula,” Levy wrote.

The U.S. State Department have not officially confirmed Rubio’s involvement or the senator’s arrival in the U.S., but a U.S. official confirmed to CNN earlier Tuesday that Bolsonaro was flying to Florida.

Judge De Moraes has become infamous for “censoring, imprisoning and otherwise persecuting his critics and opponents of Lula’s government,” independent journalist Glenn Greenwald noted on X.

Greenwald, who has lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil since 2005, noted that Bolsonaro’s right wing party dominates the Senate, “having run on a vow to impeach Moraes, and this is seen by many as a kind of leverage/hostage ploy by Moraes to cling to power.”

De Moraes in August 2024 ordered Elon Musk’s  X to be banned in the country, demanded that Apple and Google remove their virtual private networks (VPNs) from their stores, and threatened to fine Brazilians $8,900 a day if they are caught using the popular social media platform.

Brazil’s authoritarian censorship regime stems from the Brazilian Supreme Court’s decision in 2019 to grant itself new powers to “ act as an investigator, prosecutor and judge all at once in some cases,” according to a House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government interim report in April 2024.

Republicans on the committee accused the Biden administration of being “noticeably silent” in the face of the draconian attacks on free speech in Brazil.

According to Greenwald,  Moraes himself is engulfed in a massive judicial scandal “that makes most other scandals seem trivial by comparison.”

“His family received roughly $40 million (!!!) from a corrupt billionaire (Daniel Vorcaro) shortly before his bank (Banco Master) collapsed: it was basically a ponzi scheme stealing from depositors and investors,” Greenwald posted on X.

Moraes repeatedly lied by denying he had contact with Vorcaro. But then messages from Vorcaro’s phone were obtained by the police and leaked, showing that the banker spoke extensively and continuously with Moraes after paying his wife these obscene sums, guaranteeing Moraes and his family generational lavish wealth.

Among those chats: Vorcaro repeateadly asked Moraes about the status of the police investigation against him, and specifically asked Moraes when he should flee the country to avoid justice (he was boarding his private jet to Dubai when the police nabbed him at the last second).

Moraes deleted all of his messages to Vorcaro to prevent investigators from learning what he told the banker about pending police operations or anything else (behavior that Moraes has cited as “obstruction of justice” to justify imprisoning others before trial). So we don’t know what Moraes told the banker about pending police operations of if he tried to help him flee to Dubai to avoid arrest: because Moraes erased his messages.

That’s what makes it extra bizarre — just surreal — that it is now Moraes of all people who is posturing as the judge who wants to ensure that Flavio Bolsonaro is barred from leaving Brazil (even in the absence of criminal charges).

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), a decorated veteran who served as a Marine Helicopter Pilot and physician, stated Tuesday that he is “deeply concerned” by reports that de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports.

“Allegations of election irregularities, including changes to voting hours, raise serious questions that demand transparency and independent scrutiny,” McCormick posted on X. “The Brazilian people deserve confidence in their elections, the right to challenge results, and protection from political retaliation.

The congressman added that the United States “must stand for free and fair elections, due process, and fundamental freedoms,” and the concerns surrounding this matter in Brazil warrants “serious scrutiny, particularly given what we have witnessed in Venezuela.”