Flávio Bolsonaro Reportedly Leaves Brazil for the US After Losing Presidential Election

Far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly left Brazil and is heading to the United States, days after losing Sunday's presidential election to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The reports come from several Brazilian outlets, and he has not publicly confirmed his movements.

The news website Metrópoles, citing people close to the family, said he was in the air, though it did not say where the flight began. Allies told the site he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and intended to request political asylum. Metrópoles added that the administration of Donald Trump had been informed.

Folha de S Paulo also reported that allies confirmed he was on his way to the US, and said the departure was organized and enabled by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan. CNN Brasil reported that he left with his wife and two daughters in the early hours of Tuesday.

Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday. He missed a Tuesday-morning deadline of 11am to hand his passport to the federal police, after a supreme court justice cancelled the document minutes after the election result, in a ruling tied to a criminal case against him. Police are investigating him over possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme worth about £680m ($905m) involving betting companies. O Globo reported that in a meeting with friends and lawyers on Monday he appeared "possessed" and made clear he feared arrest.

Accounts of the route differ. Infobae reported he went to Argentina on Monday night and was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú, but the plane did not take off. Todo Noticias said he crossed the border on foot and dropped the plane plan once news of his movements leaked. Because there is no record of him passing a regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, federal police are asking Argentinian authorities whether he entered the country. On Monday, Bolsonaro posted a video saying: "I never thought about leaving the country." He has not conceded defeat.

His brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former congressman living in self-imposed exile in the US, said in an interview last Friday that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost. Eduardo faces an outstanding arrest warrant in Brazil after a four-year prison sentence for trying to interfere in their father's trial by lobbying Trump to impose sanctions on the justices hearing the case. Their father, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for attempting a coup.

The developments leave the future of the Brazilian far right uncertain. Political scientist Magna Inácio of the Federal University of Minas Gerais said voters' resistance to the more extremist camp "sends a signal that the right leadership is now up for grabs." Camila Rocha, who studies Brazil's new right, said she sees a tendency for power to move away from the sons. She noted that polls before the election showed Jair Bolsonaro's supporters preferring other options, including Michelle Bolsonaro, recently elected senator, and São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas.

Flávio reportedly did not want to run, fearing a campaign would turn his life into "hell" and believing his Senate re-election was assured. He was chosen after Eduardo, his father's "plan A", settled in the US. Observers generally say he lacks his father's charisma. In 24 years in politics he passed few laws, and his only earlier run for executive office was the 2016 Rio de Janeiro mayoral race, when he fainted during a televised debate and finished fourth. He has also faced longstanding allegations, including suspicions that he embezzled part of his staff's salaries.

Even so, 48.21% of Brazilians voted for him on Sunday, a result many analysts read as both an anti-Lula vote and a vote for Jair Bolsonaro's chosen successor. Inácio expects a struggle over the family legacy among those still in Brazil, including Michelle, senator-elect Carlos Bolsonaro and congressman-elect Jair Renan Bolsonaro, who publicly do not get along with their stepmother. "It is only a matter of time before tensions between them grow," she said.