Flavio Bolsonaro and Family to Receive US Visas After Leaving Brazil, State Department Says
Ricardo Brito et al., Reuters, October 27, 2026
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election, three sources said, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas.
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports.
The ruling relates to a money laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing.
Argentina’s migration department said on Wednesday that Bolsonaro and his family had briefly entered the country’s Misiones province on Tuesday night through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, before boarding a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador at 11:30 pm local time (0230 GMT).
Argentina cited the flight plan, for the plane operated by air charter company Baires Fly, as the source for the aircraft’s destination. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry did not respond to an emailed request for comment outside regular hours.
The current location of Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters was not immediately clear.
Speaking to reporters late on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had said that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina.
“The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” a senior State Department official said.
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Bolsonaro’s departure threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in power, and Reuters reported ahead of Sunday’s election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States.
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On Monday, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports, which were canceled after the deadline lapsed, two sources said. In a court ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court cited the risk of Bolsonaro fleeing Brazil and his “significant financial resources” in ordering his passports seized.
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