Bolsonaro's son leaves Brazil for Argentina, then Ecuador, records show

Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator who lost Brazil's presidential race, left the country with his wife and two daughters this week, Argentina's migration authority said Wednesday.

The family crossed at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday over the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, which links Brazil to Argentina's Misiones province, the authority said in a post on X. It said they held valid travel documents and faced no legal barriers to entering. At 11:30 p.m., after clearing immigration, the four boarded a private charter flight run by Baires Fly S.A. The flight plan filed for that aircraft listed Guayaquil, Ecuador, as its destination. FlightRadar24 showed a plane matching that description landing in Guayaquil around 4 a.m. Wednesday, then departing minutes later for Opa Locka executive airport in Miami. It was not confirmed whether Bolsonaro was on the aircraft.

The trip followed a Supreme Court order requiring Bolsonaro to hand over his Brazilian passports by noon Tuesday. It was not established whether he complied. Allies said late Tuesday that he also holds an Italian passport. Argentina's migration authority reported that U.S. visas were issued to Bolsonaro and his family on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro, 45, is a senator whose eight-year term ends Jan. 31, 2027. Brazil's Supreme Court is examining two cases against him. One examines whether he used a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. The other accuses him of accepting millions of dollars from a banker.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia. Lula said he lacked precise details on Bolsonaro's location but confirmed he had left. "I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true," Lula said. "This act of leaving Brazil is shameful."

Argentine lawmaker Marcela Pagano said on X that she filed suit in a federal court in Puerto Iguazu late Tuesday seeking an investigation into her government for people smuggling and abuse of authority. "Argentina's border is not a VIP runway for anyone," Pagano wrote. On Tuesday, Milei administration spokesman Adrian Ravier said "there is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add." U.S. President Donald Trump said early Wednesday he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States, calling him and his family "fine people."

Lula won reelection by about 4.4 million votes in the runoff. The Organization of American States and leaders worldwide endorsed the result. Jair Bolsonaro, the former president, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup after his 2022 loss to Lula. He left Brazil for Florida after that defeat and returned three months later.