Brazil election loser Flávio Bolsonaro leaves via Argentina, boards flight to Ecuador

Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated Brazilian presidential candidate, has left Brazil. Argentina's migration authority said on October 28 that he, his wife and their two daughters entered Argentina on the night of October 27 and then boarded a charter flight bound for Ecuador. The move is almost certain to cause a diplomatic rift between Brazil's newly reelected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Argentine President Javier Milei, who travelled to Brazil to campaign for Bolsonaro.

From the border bridge to the charter flight

Argentina's National Directorate of Migration said on social media that the family crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. on October 27 via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge into the northeastern province of Misiones, holding valid travel documents with no legal impediment to entry. At about 11:30 p.m., the four boarded a private charter flight operated by Baires Fly S.A., whose filed flight plan listed Guayaquil, Ecuador, as the destination. Flight-tracking data cited by AFP showed the aircraft departing just after midnight on October 28 from Puerto Iguazú in northeastern Argentina.

The passport order and the US visas

Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He lost the presidential runoff on October 25 to Lula, refused to concede, and said he would seek to annul the result, although his Liberal Party acknowledged the outcome on October 26. Brazil's Supreme Court had ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon on October 27 in connection with investigations into alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, which he denies. The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration had granted visas to Bolsonaro and his family the day before; the US State Department said it would issue visas but did not confirm their travel plans.

Reactions and what remains unclear

Lula, marking his 81st birthday, called the departure shameful and said Bolsonaro should have stayed in Brazil to prove his innocence. US President Donald Trump claimed without presenting evidence that Brazil's election looked rigged. Other media reports, citing sources, said Bolsonaro later arrived in Miami, but US authorities have not confirmed whether he has entered the United States, and Ecuador has not publicly confirmed his entry either. The final destination of the journey still awaits official clarification from Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and the United States.