Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate defeated in Brazil’s elections, landed in Miami on Wednesday, according to news media video footage, fleeing his country after Brazilian authorities canceled his passports as part of a money-laundering investigation.
Mr. Bolsonaro arrived in the United States after apparently vanishing for a whirlwind 24 hours during which it was largely unclear where he was and how, or if, he would reach the United States.
The State Department plans to issue visas allowing him and his family to enter the country, a senior department official said on Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
The U.S. government’s assistance to Mr. Bolsonaro could escalate tensions between the Trump administration and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who has accused President Trump of interfering in his country’s internal affairs.
Mr. Bolsonaro, a right-wing senator and the son of a former president serving a lengthy sentence for attempting a coup, lost Sunday’s presidential vote to Mr. Lula. After initially contesting the result, he conceded but claimed Mr. Lula had won through unfair tactics.
Mr. Trump has also criticized the election, saying it appeared to have been “rigged.”
Mr. Bolsonaro crossed from Brazil to Argentina by land on Tuesday night with his wife and two daughters, Argentina’s National Directorate of Migration said Wednesday. It said that he then boarded a private fight to Guayaquil, Ecuador. He then took another flight to the United States.
Earlier on Tuesday, Brazilian authorities had canceled Mr. Bolsonaro’s passports because he is being investigated over his links to a Brazilian lawyer accused of laundering more than $1 billion through a scheme involving online gambling.
Separately, Mr. Bolsonaro is also the subject of a police inquiry over millions of dollars he raised from a disgraced banker at the center of a huge corruption scheme to finance a biopic of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. The elder Mr. Bolsonaro was convicted of attempting a coup after losing the presidential election in 2022 to Mr. Lula.
Besides canceling his passports, Brazilian authorities also issued an alert to immigration authorities barring Mr. Bolsonaro’s exit from the country. It was not immediately clear how he was able to cross the border into Argentina.
Reporting was contributed by Thayz Guimarães, David C. Adams and Karla Adam.
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