Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Oct 28: The United States will issue visas to Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro and his family following his election defeat to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a senior US State Department official said on Tuesday, amid uncertainty over the senator’s whereabouts and a Brazilian court order requiring him to surrender his passports.
“The State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws.
Bolsonaro, who had the tacit support of US President Donald Trump, lost the closely contested election to Lula over the weekend. The outcome came amid a series of conservative electoral setbacks in Latin America.
It remained unclear whether Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or was preparing to travel to the United States. Neither his spokesperson nor his campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, responded to requests for comment.
His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly urged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Flávio Bolsonaro has frequently highlighted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. However, the family has also faced legal challenges. Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. An arrest warrant was recently issued against him.
Trump stopped short of giving Flávio Bolsonaro an unequivocal endorsement during the election runoff against Lula. However, on Monday, he suggested without providing evidence that Brazil's election had been “rigged”.
The developments came as a deadline for Flávio Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether he had complied with the order.
The senator was served with the passport surrender order on Monday, a day after his election defeat. The sealed Supreme Court order, issued on Sunday, was reviewed by The Associated Press.
Bolsonaro said he received the order outside the residence where his father, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his defeat to Lula in the 2022 election. Jair Bolsonaro had fled to Florida after that defeat but returned to Brazil three months later.
Flávio Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud. He initially called for the results to be annulled after disruptions at some polling stations prompted authorities to extend voting by two hours.
On Monday, he urged Brazil's electoral court to investigate alleged fraud and nullify the candidacies of Lula and Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin. Such a move would be unprecedented for the court.
“I never thought about leaving the country,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted on his social media accounts. He added that he would surrender his passports and defend himself against what he described as an attempt to intimidate him.
To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would need to provide evidence of fraud sufficient to affect Lula's margin of victory, which stood at approximately 4.4 million votes, and persuade the eight-member electoral court before the results are certified on December 18.
Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro.
In a video posted on Monday, Bolsonaro also said he intended to organise opposition among his congressional colleagues rather than leave Brazil. His eight-year term as a senator is due to end on January 31, 2027, after which he will lose the special jurisdiction he currently enjoys before Brazil's Supreme Court.
The senator is under investigation by the Supreme Court in two cases involving alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. In one case, he is accused of using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In another, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.
Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing in both cases and accused Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing one of the investigations, of being aligned with Lula.
Prosecutors suspect that money received from the banker was used to cover Eduardo Bolsonaro's expenses and promote Flávio Bolsonaro's political agenda with the Trump administration, according to documents cited in reports.
Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker from Bolsonaro's Liberal Party, also questioned de Moraes' impartiality on Tuesday. He said the senator would represent his supporters in a free country and continue to lead them.
Meanwhile, reports about Bolsonaro's whereabouts fuelled speculation across Brazil. Journalists gathered outside his residence in Brasilia, but he did not appear. Brazilian media reported that several of his allies had been unable to contact him.
Argentina's Ministry of Security denied reports that the senator had entered the country.
Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally based in the United States, declined to clarify the senator's whereabouts, saying he did not wish to speak to the press at that time.