Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left Brazil for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential runoff, Reuters reported on Tuesday 27 October 2026, citing an ally of the senator and earlier media reports. The departure comes two days after his defeat by incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and in defiance of a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered Bolsonaro on Monday to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of a money-laundering investigation, in which Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing. When that deadline lapsed, his documents were cancelled, according to sources cited by Reuters. Brazil's federal police said he had not exited via any regular migration point, and Argentina said it had no record of him entering.

Washington's role

US officials told CNN that President Donald Trump had approved allowing Bolsonaro entry into the United States, and that the US was issuing visas to Bolsonaro and his family. A person familiar with the situation told CNN on Tuesday afternoon that Bolsonaro had arrived in the US, though it remained unclear where he landed or whether he had spoken directly with Trump before departing. Neither the US Embassy in Brazil nor Bolsonaro's lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment.

A deepening rift

The departure threatens to deepen the rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to return them to power, and Bolsonaro had initially said he would not recognise the result and would seek its annulment. His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, also went to the US after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, before returning and later receiving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.