Arab News | Flavio Bolsonaro headed to US after Brazil election defeat: US media

WASHINGTON: Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro left his country on Tuesday for the United States, US media said, after he refused to accept defeat in the runoff presidential election held over the weekend.

Bolsonaro, who faces multiple legal woes, had his passports canceled but had not surrendered the documents as of Tuesday afternoon. The New York Times, CNN and other outlets said he had left Brazil, citing unnamed US officials.

The US State Department said Tuesday that it would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family “and allow them entry into the United States” but stopped short of confirming if they were indeed traveling to the country.

Flavio Bolsonaro is under legal scrutiny in several cases, including a corruption probe over the financing of a biopic about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest for plotting a coup.

The 45-year-old was defeated by incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday and has been set to lose his parliamentary immunity while legal woes piled up.

While he cried foul and vowed to challenge the election legally, his party and allies have accepted the result, leaving him increasingly isolated.

The New York Times reported that Bolsonaro was also being investigated over ties to a Brazilian lawyer accused of laundering more than $1 billion through an alleged fraud scheme.

Flavio Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo, is based in the United States.

Despite media reports that Bolsonaro had entered neighboring Argentina, the country’s security ministry and migration authorities on Tuesday denied that this took place.