The far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled Brazil and is on his way to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election to the leftwing incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
uncertain
senator → flee → incumbent
A report by the news website Metrópoles, citing people close to the politician’s family, said he was en route to the US.
asserted
he → cite → US
“The plane is in flight,” Metrópoles reported, without making clear where it had departed from.
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departed → report → where
Bolsonaro allies told Metrópoles that he would land in Florida on Tuesday afternoon and planned to request political asylum.
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he → tell → asylum
“The Donald Trump administration has been informed,” the website added.
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website → inform → ?
Allies also confirmed to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper that he was on his way to the US, and said the escape plan had been “organized and enabled by a lawyer close to the Bolsonaro clan”.
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plan → confirm → clan
“They say the flight should land in a few hours,” the newspaper added.
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newspaper → say → hours
The news network CNN Brasil reported that Bolsonaro had fled to the US with his wife and two daughters in the early hours of this morning.
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Bolsonaro → report → morning
Lawmakers from Lula’s Worker’s party (PT) asked the supreme court to order Bolsonaro’s arrest and requested that his name be put on Interpol’s Red Notice list.
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name → ask → list
Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday and missed a Tuesday-morning deadline to hand his passport to the federal police, fuelling rumours that he may have fled Brazil after losing on Sunday.
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he → see → Sunday
A report in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo said that during a meeting with friends and lawyers on Monday, the defeated candidate had appeared “possessed and made it clear he was afraid of being arrested”.
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he → say → Monday
A supreme court justice cancelled Bolsonaro’s passport minutes after the result in a ruling related to a criminal case against the senator.
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justice → cancel → senator
He had until 11am to surrender the document to the federal police, but did not appear.
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He → have → police
Bolsonaro has had Italian citizenship since 2023 and reportedly possesses a passport from the European country.
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Bolsonaro → have → country
The Argentinian news website Infobae reported that on Monday night he reportedly fled to Argentina, where he was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú bound for the US, but the plane did not take off.
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plane → report → US
Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, posted a video on Monday in which, commenting on the cancellation of his passport, he said: “I never thought about leaving the country.”
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I → have → country
One of the senator’s brothers, the former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is in self-imposed exile in the US, had said in an interview last Friday that his brother should leave Brazil if he lost.
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he → impose → Brazil
The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo reported that allies in the Bolsonaro family’s inner circle had been told that he had indeed left for Argentina and intended to travel from there to the US.
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he → report → US
As there is no record of him passing through any regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint, the federal police are trying to establish from Argentinian authorities whether there is any record of him entering the country.
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him → be → country
The Argentinian channel Todo Noticias reported that the senator had reportedly crossed the border into Argentina on foot and abandoned plans to board the plane once news of his movements leaked.
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news → report → movements
Bolsonaro was told to surrender his passport over a criminal case in which the federal police are investigating him for possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme worth about £680m ($905m) involving betting companies.
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police → tell → companies
The senator’s possible flight makes the future of the far right after the presidential election even more uncertain.
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future → make → election
The family patriarch, Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for attempting a coup, and one of his sons is in the US and the whereabouts of another unclear.
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whereabouts → attempt → another
Eduardo Bolsonaro has an outstanding arrest warrant against him in Brazil, after being sentenced to four years in prison for trying to interfere in his father’s trial by lobbying Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the justices hearing the case.
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Bolsonaro → have → case
Political scientist Magna Inácio, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, believes a power vacuum may now emerge within the right.
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vacuum → believe → right
“The resistance of Brazilian voters to handing victory to this more extremist camp sends a signal that the right leadership is now up for grabs,” she said.
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she → hand → grabs
Since Jair Bolsonaro, then a career congressman with few laws to his name, surprisingly won the presidency in 2018, there has effectively been no right wing in Brazil, only the far-right Bolsonarismo movement.
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Bolsonaro → win → Brazil
Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies Brazil’s new right, believes the fact that three Bolsonaros are now potentially out of the picture could trigger a “shift in power” away from blood ties.
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Bolsonaros → study → ties
“I think there is a tendency for power to move away from the sons,” said Rocha, noting that before the election, polls showed Jair Bolsonaro supporters preferred other potential candidates over his eldest son, including Jair Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who was recently elected senator, and the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas.
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who → think → wife
Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly did not want to run because he thought a presidential campaign would turn his life into “hell”, and believed his re-election to the senate was assured.
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election → want → senate
But with Eduardo, his father’s “plan A”, now living in the US, the senator was chosen to run.
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senator → live → US
Most observers agree that Flávio lacks his father’s charisma.
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Flávio → agree → charisma
He had a 24-year political career in which he passed very few laws as a state legislator and senator, and the only previous time he ran for executive office was for mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when he fainted during a televised debate and finished fourth.
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he → have → debate
Even in a family frequently embroiled in legal trouble he stood out, facing longstanding criminal allegations, including suspicions that he embezzled part of his staff’s salaries, as well as more recent accusations.
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he → embroil → salaries
Even so, 48.21% of Brazilians voted for Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, which many analysts see as both an anti-Lula vote and a vote for whomever Jair Bolsonaro had chosen.
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Bolsonaro → vote → whomever
Inácio believes the struggle over the Bolsonaro legacy will also play out among family members who remain in Brazil, including Michelle and Bolsonaro’s other political sons, the senator-elect Carlos Bolsonaro and congressman-elect Jair Renan Bolsonaro, who publicly do not get along with their stepmother.
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who → believe → stepmother
“Michelle clearly has a political project of her own, but she is likely to face strong resistance from the two stepsons who are in congress.
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who → have → congress
It is only a matter of time before tensions between them grow,” said the political scientist.
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scientist → grow → them
The Aporia
