Brazilian Senator fleeing to Miami after losing election

Flávio Bolsonaro declared himself the “true president” of Brazil after losing last Sunday’s presidential election and fleeing to the United States.

After landing on a private jet with his family in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday morning, the far-right senator published the claim in a letter – even though his own party has recognised the legitimate victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as have all of Brazil’s institutions, and international observers who monitored and endorsed the vote.

Bolsonaro, the son of the jailed former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, took off on the jet with his wife and two teenage daughters at about 11.30pm, bound for Guayaquil in Ecuador, reportedly to avoid Brazilian airspace. They made a brief stop in Ecuador and continued on to the Miami-Opa Locka airport, a private aviation hub about 11 miles north of downtown Miami catering to corporate executives and wealthy travelers. He disappeared for more than 24 hours, until Argentina’s migration authorities said he had entered the country by land on Tuesday night. The senator later deleted the letter and published a new one in which, instead of calling himself the “true president”, he described himself as “the leader of Brazil”.

Bolsonaro is under investigation in at least two criminal cases, one of them examining suspicions that the senator was involved in a money-laundering scheme worth about £680m ($905m) involving betting companies. Brazil’s three main newspapers all described Bolsonaro’s declaration as “coup-mongering”. Brazilian newspapers also reported that he and his family had been granted humanitarian visas in the US, and Trump on Tuesday said he would approve their move to the country.