WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Flávio Bolsonaro and his family would get U.S. visas after his weekend defeat to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative election results in Latin America.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws, said that “the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter the United States.”
Bolsonaro, who had That of President Donald Trump tacit support, was under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and was ordered to surrender his passport.
The State Department official did not say whether Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or whether he and his family were on their way to the United States. Lula told a few dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he did not have precise information on Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.
Bolsonaro’s campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he had not spoken to the defeated candidate since Tuesday morning.
“We have not heard from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened,” Marinho said. “I got a text from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I got from him.”
Brazilian media reported that many of Bolsonaro’s allies had been unable to reach him. Argentina’s Security Ministry denied that the Brazilian senator had entered that country.
Bolsonaro has family ties to the United States
Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Flávio Bolsonaro touted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. The family ties run deeper: Brother Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegal lobbying of the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant was recently issued for his arrest.
Trump did not give full support to Bolsonaro in the runoff against Lula, as he did with other center-right candidates in Latin America. But he suggested on Monday, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s elections were “rigged.”
Bolsonaro’s decision to leave Brazil came as he faced a deadline to return his expired regular and diplomatic passports by midday on Tuesday. It remains unclear whether he complied.
Bolsonaro was ordered to surrender his passports on Monday. He said he received it outside the house where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence. under house arrest for attempting a coup d’état following his 2022 electoral defeat by Lula. After this defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.
Bolsonaro raises questions about elections he lost
The sealed Supreme Court order, seen by The Associated Press, was issued on Election Day Sunday. Bolsonaro has refused to acknowledge his defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.
Bolsonaro had initially called for the election results to be overturned after an evening of chaos at some polling stations that prompted authorities to extend voting by two hours.
On Monday, he urged the electoral court to investigate allegations of electoral fraud and annul the candidacies of Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, something the electoral court has never done before.
“I never thought about leaving the country,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted on his social networks. “I will surrender my passports and I will defend myself against this aberration. It is clearly an attempt to intimidate me. But I will not allow myself to be silenced.”
To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would have to present evidence of fraud affecting Lula’s 4.4 million vote margin and convince the eight-member electoral tribunal before the results are certified on December 18.
Lula received more than 64 million votes, compared to less than 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of almost 4%.
Lula celebrates his birthday and criticizes Bolsonaro
Lula turned 81 on Tuesday and celebrated his birthday with a birthday cake shared with a few dozen supporters in front of the presidential residence in Brasilia.
He appeared emotional in his speech, saying he had yet to find his voice after a hard-fought campaign. He said Bolsonaro had left Brazil, although he did not know his precise whereabouts. “I wonder what kind of guilt weighs on the conscience of a citizen who just lost an election and flees his own country. What kind of guilt?”
Lula suggested that Bolsonaro’s departure fit a family pattern. Brazil is “the second country” of the Bolsonaro family, he said.
“The first is to lick America’s boots,” Lula said. “Those who are not responsible are not afraid. A guy who secretly leaves his country is because he is responsible for something.”
Bolsonaro said in a video posted to his social media on Monday that he was trying to organize his congressional colleagues’ opposition to the election results. His eight-year term as senator expires on January 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction in the country’s Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court over allegations of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. In one, he is accused of using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to the elderly. In the other, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.
He denied any wrongdoing in both cases and claimed Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who heads one of the investigations, is an ally of Lula. Prosecutors suspect the banker’s funds were used to pay expenses for his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro’s political agenda to the Trump administration, documents show.
Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, also questioned Moraes’ objectivity on Tuesday. “Seven minutes after the elections, Alexandre de Moraes ordered the seizure of his passports,” Marcon said. Bolsonaro “will represent us in a free country. He will continue to be our leader.”
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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
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