(Oct 28): Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Tuesday after fleeing his country following a defeat in its presidential election, O Globo reported.

Bolsonaro was greeted by his brother Eduardo upon arrival, the newspaper said, citing allies. Eduardo has lived in the US since last year after moving there to lobby US President Donald Trump to help their father, former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup.

A senior US State Department official said earlier Tuesday that the US would grant visas to Flávio and his family. 

Flávio Bolsonaro, who is facing multiple criminal investigations in Brazil, was ordered to surrender his passports to the Federal Police by Tuesday but failed to do so, according to a police official familiar with the situation. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whom the Bolsonaro family has long accused of political persecution, demanded he turn over the documents amid concerns the senator posed a flight risk.

Bolsonaro’s loss to Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s runoff election dealt a massive setback to a family that had sought to cement a political dynasty in Brazil. The senator had made freeing his father Jair Bolsonaro who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss, a central theme of his campaign.

Trump told reporters early Wednesday after returning from a campaign trip to Texas that he would have approved of Bolsonaro coming to the US but thought that he was in Argentina.

Speaking in Texas on Tuesday afternoon, Trump avoided mentioning Bolsonaro but reiterated his unfounded assertions that there was fraud in Brazil’s election. He assailed Democrats as the “greatest cheaters of elections” before adding that “Brazil’s doing a pretty good job also”.

The US leader has long been an ally of the Bolsonaros and last year placed tariffs on Brazilian goods in an unsuccessful bid to help Jair Bolsonaro avoid his coup trial.

Flávio Bolsonaro’s whereabouts were unknown to police or allies on Tuesday morning after Infobae reported that he had crossed into Argentina and planned to travel to the US from there. Brazil police have no official record of Bolsonaro leaving Brazil, and the press secretary for Argentina President Javier Milei denied that he had entered the country.

Multiple Bolsonaro allies told Bloomberg News that they tried to contact him but had not heard back.

The saga has set social media alight with memes referring to Bolsonaro as "Flyvio", comparing him to Carmen Sandiego or Where’s Waldo? Others have altered the conservative slogan, “God, Country and Family” to “Goodbye, Country and Family".

“The act of leaving Brazil is shameful,” Lula said at an event to mark his 81st birthday. The leftist has had a rocky relationship with Trump and earlier this year denied visas to two senior US officials amid fears they planned to question the integrity of its electoral system.

Bolsonaro is facing at least two federal investigations into allegations of money laundering, one of which stems from his links to the former Banco Master SA owner caught in Brazil’s biggest-ever bank fraud case. He has denied wrongdoing.

His actions since the Sunday vote had evoked those of his father even before the reports he was leaving Brazil. He initially said he would request the annulment of the results due to a Supreme Court decision to extend voting hours, echoing Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept his narrow loss to Lula four years ago.

Jair Bolsonaro left Brazil for the US after the defeat. He returned months later and was subsequently barred from holding public office for eight years for spreading false claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system ahead of the election, then convicted of plotting a coup.

Flávio Bolsonaro backed down on his plans to seek annulment of the results Monday, publishing a social media video in which he said the Supreme Court had barred him from leaving Brazil. He said the move followed comments by his brother Eduardo, who said on a podcast that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost the election.

Moraes’ decision irritated officials in Lula’s government as well as some members of the Supreme Court, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. 

Lula’s administration had wanted to focus on efforts to pacify the country and move past the polarisation that has exploded during back-to-back election battles between the leftist leader and a member of the Bolsonaro family, the people said. It viewed the move from Moraes, a controversial judge who oversaw Jair Bolsonaro’s trial and has long drawn charges of censorship from the Brazilian right, as counter to those aims.

Earlier Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered federal authorities to open an investigation into possible illegal foreign financing of Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, including by a group linked to US Vice President J D Vance. 

The justice stressed that the order does not establish that illegal foreign financing occurred but said allegations levelled during Brazil’s presidential race warrant an investigation. Vance’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Argentina’s spokesman, Adrian Ravier, said there had been no request for asylum in Argentina from Bolsonaro during a press conference Tuesday.

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