Arabic version: فلافيو بولسونارو يصل إلى الولايات المتحدة بعد إلغاء جوازي سفره

According to BBC News, defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has arrived in the United States after Brazil cancelled his passports. Sources told BBC Brasil and BBC Mundo that Bolsonaro met his younger brother, Eduardo, in Florida, though his route from Brazil to the US remains unclear.

Brazil’s Supreme Court had ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. His passports were cancelled on Tuesday after he missed the deadline. Bolsonaro has not been charged and has denied the allegations. His lawyers said they were “completely in the dark” about his whereabouts after he failed to hand over the documents.

A senior US official confirmed that the State Department would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter the country. Neither Flávio nor Eduardo Bolsonaro could be directly reached for comment. It is unclear who travelled with Flávio Bolsonaro, whether he intends to remain in the US, or how he left Brazil. Argentine authorities said there was no record of him entering Argentina through a border crossing.

Bolsonaro, a 45-year-old senator, lost Sunday’s presidential run-off to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who won 51.79% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 48.21%. Bolsonaro has not conceded and has called for the election to be annulled, arguing that an extension of polling hours put him at a disadvantage. The Liberal Party accepted the result, while saying the voting extension “merits investigation.”