Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States, two sources said, following his defeat in Sunday's presidential election and his refusal to comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports.
The U.S. Embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Bolsonaro's lawyer declined to comment. A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro did not leave the country through any regular migration point.
Bolsonaro had been favoured to win the presidential runoff but lost in a shock result to the leftist incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On Monday, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports as part of a money laundering investigation, in which he denies wrongdoing. Two other sources said that deadline has now passed, and his documents have been cancelled.
His departure could deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to return them to power. Ahead of Sunday's vote, Reuters reported on a U.S. State Department campaign to restore the family to office.
The move echoes the path of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who also went to the United States after refusing to concede his loss to Lula in 2022. The elder Bolsonaro later returned to Brazil and was subsequently handed a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.
Flávio Bolsonaro has not formally conceded. On Sunday he said he would seek to have the result annulled over alleged voter irregularities. His Liberal Party, however, said on Monday that it acknowledged Lula's victory.
Paulo Figueiredo, a right-wing influencer who acts as an unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about Bolsonaro's whereabouts. "After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press," he said, adding that he would get in touch if he had comments to make.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, the candidate's younger brother, who lives in the United States, had signalled before the vote that a loss would call for a move abroad. "If my brother does not win, I'm in favour that he would leave the country," he told U.S.-based podcaster Steven Crowder earlier this month.
