After leaving Brazil, Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in the United States and thanked Donald Trump for welcoming him. He said he would make America a base for organizing the opposition to President-elect Lula da Silva.
In an open letter distributed to journalists by his allies after he arrived in Miami with his family, Bolsonaro called himself “the true president-elect of Brazil,” despite losing the second round of the presidential election.
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The right-wing senator expressed gratitude to US President Donald Trump and the American people for welcoming him. He also thanked Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who reportedly helped him leave Brazil for the United States.
In the letter, Bolsonaro claimed that a “politically motivated campaign of persecution” was underway in the country, with the aim of keeping him hostage. He accused his opponents of stealing the election but offered no evidence to support his claims of electoral fraud.
“I want to tell my 60 million voters and the Brazilian people that I am the president-elect and that the criminals who stole the Brazilian election are part of a criminal organization that has established a tyranny,” he said.
He linked his decision to leave Brazil to what he described as the politicization of the judicial system. Bolsonaro insisted he had not left to hide, but to become “the leader my people deserve.”
Bolsonaro said he intends to lead the opposition from the United States. He refuses to accept his defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and did not rule out attempts to overturn the election result.
The investigation in Brazil and his departure for the US
His departure came as Brazil’s Supreme Court had ordered him to hand over his passports to the federal police. The measure was taken as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering, allegations Bolsonaro denies.
By leaving for Florida, he followed in the footsteps of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. He, too, moved to the US state after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula.
After spending nearly a day out of the public eye, Flavio Bolsonaro reappeared in Argentina on Tuesday evening. He then traveled via Ecuador to Miami, arriving on Wednesday morning aboard a private jet belonging to an Argentine businessman.
His messages from the US indicate that Bolsonaro intends to take his political clash with Lula beyond Brazil’s borders and use his stay in America to support the opposition.
