RIO DE JANEIRO (Realist English). Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro and an unsuccessful presidential candidate, on Friday, 30 October, published his first video address since leaving the country. In an Instagram livestream, he said he had become a victim of “persecution” and explained why he decided to leave Brazil.
Timeline of the departure
Flavio Bolsonaro lost in the second round of the presidential election to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. After the defeat, Brazil’s Supreme Court, at the request of the Federal Police, ordered the senator to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country as part of a money-laundering investigation. On Monday, 26 October, police notified him that his passports had been annulled as he was leaving after a visit to his father, who is under house arrest.
On Tuesday, 27 October, Bolsonaro secretly left Brazil across the border with Argentina without surrendering his documents, then flew via Ecuador on a private jet and arrived on Wednesday, 28 October, in the US state of Florida. According to the Federal Police, there are no official records of him passing through immigration control.
What Bolsonaro said
“The persecution began even earlier than I expected,” the senator said in the livestream. According to him, he and his wife made the decision to leave “without anyone knowing,” and he urged people not to “point fingers” at others. He also described his last conversation with his father: “With tears in his eyes, he told me: ‘Do you understand what they are leading to?’ I replied: ‘Dad, I understand… Now I know what I must do.'”
Bolsonaro rejected the accusations, saying Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had brought false charges against him. “I did not leave Brazil, I left for Brazil,” he said. He also hinted at irregularities in the second round, comparing them to “handballs” that VAR did not overturn, but provided no evidence. The senator predicted that Brazil’s economy would “collapse” under Lula and said he was ready to run for president again — “not in 2030, but earlier.”
Reaction and legal status
Bolsonaro’s name came into focus after the presidents of the United States and Argentina, Donald Trump and Javier Milei, faced questions about possible involvement of Washington and Buenos Aires in his departure. At the same time, according to sources, the Trump administration does not plan to support his claims to be the “legitimate leader of Brazil.”
Despite violating the court order, the Federal Police does not consider Bolsonaro a fugitive: no arrest warrant has been issued, and no constant surveillance has been established. The senator is involved in several Supreme Court investigations, including a case concerning an alleged request for 134 million reais from former banker Daniel Vorcaro to finance a film about his father, as well as money-laundering accusations.
Bolsonaro’s video address presents the departure as a political gesture rather than a flight from justice, but his claims of “persecution” and election irregularities remain unproven.
Legally, he has not been declared wanted, leaving the situation in limbo. The key question remains whether Brazilian justice will seek his extradition from the United States and how the Trump administration, which has so far distanced itself from supporting his claims, will react. For Brazilian politics, this means further polarisation: Bolsonaro’s supporters gain a narrative of “political exile,” while the institutions insist on the rule of law.
