When Flávio Bolsonaro fled Brazil two days after losing last month’s presidential election and arrived at an airport in Argentina, a top adviser to Argentina’s president was waiting for him on the tarmac.
The adviser, Santiago Caputo, a member of President Javier Milei’s inner circle, met Mr. Bolsonaro at the Puerto Iguazú airport on Oct. 27, where he boarded a jet that ultimately took him and his family to Miami, three people involved in the operation said.
Mr. Caputo had traveled about 800 miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, to the region the day before, and helped coordinate Mr. Bolsonaro’s departure from the airport, including helping fast-track the family’s passport processing and flight paperwork, the people said.
Mr. Bolsonaro faces multiple criminal investigations in Brazil and, according to Brazilian authorities, had not complied with an order to surrender his travel documents.
Like other people interviewed for this article, the three people familiar with the effort to help Mr. Bolsonaro reach the United States requested anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Bolsonaro did not acknowledge receiving any help from the Milei government or any other authority. He said that he did not know Mr. Caputo and that at the airport, “several Argentines were by my side, I don’t know if one of them was this guy.”
Mr. Bolsonaro did not explain how he was able to travel internationally, saying only that he made his way to the United States on his own. But Mr. Bolsonaro’s Brazilian passports had been canceled, and President Trump said that the United States gave him “a pass” to enter the country. The New York Times also reported that a White House official arranged the plane that Mr. Bolsonaro took to Miami.
Mr. Caputo, in a WhatsApp message, said he had “played no role” in Mr. Bolsonaro’s travels and did not respond to questions about his presence at the airport. Argentina’s foreign ministry said the Argentine government “had no involvement whatsoever” in Mr. Bolsonaro’s exit from Brazil. Yet Mr. Bolsonaro publicly thanked the Milei government soon after reaching Miami.
“I would like to thank President Milei for his courage, sense of justice and legality,” Mr. Bolsonaro wrote in a statement.
Likewise, Mr. Milei’s allies also cheered Mr. Bolsonaro’s escape and suggested their government played a role in it.
“Milei’s government is the bravest in history,” Juan Carreira, who oversees Mr. Milei’s digital communications, wrote on social media, adding, “Flávio Bolsonaro is safe from the claws of communism.”
Mr. Caputo holds no official government position but, together with Mr. Milei’s sister, is one of the president’s closest advisers and wields considerable influence over foreign policy and intelligence matters.
Mr. Milei, a political ally of Mr. Bolsonaro and one of the few world leaders who has not recognized the re-election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Caputo’s role in Mr. Bolsonaro’s escape is another example of how personal and partisan alliances are reshaping Latin American politics. A victory by Mr. Bolsonaro in the presidential election would have given the ascendant right its biggest win in Latin America.
Before the election, Mr. Milei had participated in a campaign event with Mr. Bolsonaro in São Paulo and insulted Mr. Lula, as well as a Brazilian Supreme Court justice who has been targeted by the right in Brazil.
Mr. Lula accused Mr. Milei of interfering in his country’s internal affairs, recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Argentina and asked the Argentine ambassador to leave the country.
Brazil is Argentina’s neighbor and largest trading partner, and experts have warned that a deteriorating relationship between the two countries could have serious economic consequences for Argentina.
Brazil’s foreign ministry last week summoned Argentina’s chargé d’affaires, the highest-ranking Argentine representative still in Brasília, the capital, to ask for an explanation about Mr. Bolsonaro’s escape, according to two Brazilian diplomats.
Pablo Quirno, Argentina’s foreign minister, denied in a post on X that such a request had been made.
Mr. Bolsonaro’s journey has fueled countless conflicting reports and generated many unanswered questions. While Brazilian authorities had barred Mr. Bolsonaro from leaving Brazil, his passage through Argentina does not appear to have broken any Argentine law.
Mr. Bolsonaro has not been charged with any crime.
Despite a court order banning Mr. Bolsonaro from traveling because of investigations linking him to a money laundering scheme, there was no arrest warrant when Mr. Bolsonaro crossed from Brazil into Argentina on the night of Oct. 27 with his wife and two daughters.
Mr. Caputo arrived in Iguazú by private jet on the night of Oct. 26, the day after Brazil’s election, said two of the people involved in Mr. Bolsonaro’s transfer through Argentina.
He spent much of Tuesday waiting for Mr. Bolsonaro in the border town, including at a cafe inside a gas station, one of the people said.
A separate private jet that would transport Mr. Bolsonaro was also waiting at the local airport. . The plane is owned by an Argentine company, Baires Fly, whose owner, Luis Grande, said he had been hired by a broker who chartered the plane for $150,000.
Mr. Grande said he had used the same jet to twice transport Mr. Lula, once to visit a former Argentine president and on another occasion to travel to Havana, Cuba.
The plane had been chartered on Oct. 26 and was initially meant to depart Argentina on the same night, Mr. Grande said. But it was delayed because the passengers “had trouble arriving,” he said.
Mr. Bolsonaro eventually crossed the Argentine border the following night, and then entered the Iguazú airport in a gray van, two of the people said.
Once there, Mr. Bolsonaro had his paperwork to board the plane expedited through immigration by Mr. Caputo and his aides, according to the three people who said they witnessed the interaction. The group with Mr. Caputo included two agents from a joint Argentine-Paraguayan public agency that manages a hydroelectric complex elsewhere along the border (Iguazú is also along Argentina’s border with Paraguay).
Mr. Bolsonaro’s plane finally took off right after midnight on Wednesday.
After the plane took off, Mr. Caputo went to find a junior police officer who was taking videos of the scene on the tarmac. Two of the people involved in the operation said Mr. Caputo told him to delete the videos.
Ana Ionova contributed reporting from Miami.
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