Brazil Cancels Passports of Flavio Bolsonaro as His Whereabouts Remain Unknown

Brazilian authorities canceled the passports of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro on Tuesday after he did not comply with a Supreme Court order to hand them over, according to two federal police sources. The police are now trying to determine where the former presidential candidate is.

Bolsonaro had been favored to win Sunday's presidential election but lost in a surprise result to the leftist incumbent, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. On Monday, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports as part of a money laundering investigation, in which he denies any wrongdoing. The two sources said that deadline has passed, which led to the cancellation.

His disappearance from public view has prompted concern that he could follow the example of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. The elder Bolsonaro moved to the United States after refusing to concede his loss to Lula in 2022. He later returned to Brazil and was subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.

Flavio Bolsonaro has not formally conceded. On Sunday he said he would seek to have the result annulled over alleged voter irregularities. His Liberal Party, however, said on Monday that it acknowledged Lula's victory.

Attention has also turned to neighboring Argentina. Its government said it had no record of Bolsonaro entering the country. After media reports about a private plane at Iguazu International Airport, on the border between the two countries, Argentine authorities inspected the aircraft and its crew. They found no flight plan listing the Bolsonaro family, the government statement said. A spokesperson for Argentine President Javier Milei, a right-wing leader who has not yet congratulated Lula, said "There is no asylum request" but would not elaborate.

A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro has not left Brazil through any regular migration point. Brazilians can enter Argentina with only an ID card rather than a passport.

The senator's aides either declined to say where he is or said they did not know. Paulo Figueiredo, a right-wing influencer who acts as an unofficial spokesperson for the family, would not answer questions about the whereabouts. "After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press," he said in a message, adding that he would be in touch if he had anything to say. Another source close to Bolsonaro said they had been unable to reach him. "It rang and it rang, but he didn't pick up," the source said of a morning phone call.

Before the vote, Bolsonaro's younger brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in the United States, suggested that a defeat would call for leaving Brazil. "If my brother does not win, I'm in favor that he would leave the country," he told podcaster Steven Crowder on October 23.

The US State Department said it had no comment and would leave it to Bolsonaro to address the details.