Flavio Bolsonaro lands in Miami after fleeing Brazil following election defeat

Flavio Bolsonaro and his family have arrived in the US after fleeing Brazil following Sunday's presidential election run-off defeat.

The right-wing senator, 45, landed in Miami on Wednesday morning, local time after travelling from Argentina on a private jet.

On Tuesday, the US State Department had confirmed it was going to issue visas to the opposition candidate, an ally of US President Donald Trump, and his family.

Mr Bolsonaro has refused to concede following his defeat by incumbent president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, widely known as Lula, in the run-off vote and threatened to attempt to annul the election result.

He was ordered by Brazil's Supreme Court to surrender his passports ​to ​federal police as part of a probe into alleged money laundering, which he denies.

But he instead followed his father, jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, who also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.

Mr Bolsonaro and his family crossed into Argentina at 10.50pm (local time) via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge border crossing, before boarding a private flight bound for Ecuador at 11.30pm, according to Argentina's migration department.

The senator appeared to be "distraught and fearful" of being arrested after his shock defeat became clear, news outlet O Globo said.

Lula described reports his opponent had left the country as "shameful".

On Monday, Mr Bolsonaro said he would comply with the request to hand over his passport, denying he planned to ​flee the country after the election.

According to Mr Bolsonaro, the judge's ruling was based on remarks from ​his younger brother, ​Eduardo Bolsonaro. He said on a podcast last week that his brother should leave the country ​if the run-off vote went against him.

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Lula won a historic fourth term in Sunday's election in a surprise result that defied polls.

Voting was neck and neck throughout Sunday evening's count, before Lula, 81, pulled away to secure an unprecedented fourth term in office.

With virtually 100% of the vote counted, Brazil's electoral court said Lula had secured 51.79% of the ballots cast, to Mr Bolsonaro's 48.21%.

But Mr Bolsonaro refused to accept defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after voting time had been extended by two hours by a supreme court judge. He said the extension was "unacceptable".

Donald Trump did ​not endorse Mr Bolsonaro ahead of the vote, but said on Monday the results "looked like another ‌rigged election" without providing evidence.

Jair Bolsonaro also travelled to the US shortly after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. After he returned to Brazil, he was sentenced to 27 years in jail and is currently under house arrest.

Lula's victory was all the more remarkable given that Mr Bolsonaro beat him by 2.2 million votes in the first round of the election earlier this month.

(c) Sky News 2026: Flavio Bolsonaro lands in Miami after fleeing Brazil following election defeat