Where is Flávio Bolsonaro? His passport and a flight that never took off

It is not yet clear whether Flávio Bolsonaro has fled Brazil for the United States via Argentina. It was the Argentine online news outlet Infobae that reported that the candidate, who had just been defeated in the Brazilian run-off, had crossed the land border to board a flight from Puerto Iguazú – an Argentine town on the border with Brazil and Paraguay – before travelling to the United States aboard a Gulfstream G400 aircraft, for which precise details were provided: registration number LV-JQW; owned by the company Baires Fly S.A.; it landed at 23:45 on Monday (03:45 Italian time), arriving from Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires; scheduled departure was at 02:00 local time (06:00 Italian time), with four passengers and three crew members on board; the destination was Fort Lauderdale Airport in Broward County, Florida.

The news emerged after Flávio reported in a video that he had been approached by Federal Police officers as he was leaving the house in Brasília where his father is under house arrest. “They ordered me, right there on the street, to hand over my passports and also forbade me from leaving the country,” he said: a restriction for which he did not specify the reason, but which could be linked to an investigation into corruption and money laundering in connection with the financing of a biographical film about his father, entitled “Dark Horse”. However, the Federal Supreme Court is also handling another investigation into alleged money laundering involving Willer Tomaz, a lawyer and close friend of the senator, as revealed by the newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and O Globo on the eve of the run-off. Bolsonaro denies all allegations in both cases.

Bolsonaro himself had initially refused to concede defeat and had called for the election to be annulled, arguing that the extended voting hours on Sunday had favoured his rival, the winner, President Lula. However, Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party had subsequently backed the request to postpone the closing of polling stations by two hours – a request initially made by Lula and justified by transport issues and bad weather – and yesterday the party’s president, Valdemar Costa Neto, acknowledged Lula’s re-election, though he did not congratulate him. “To withstand the chaos, I will organise the opposition,” Flávio had announced in the same video in which he mentioned the court order regarding his passport. “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this aberration, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me. But no one will silence me.”

The fact that, after such a defiant proclamation, he should instead have fled would be sensational, even though on the eve of the vote his brother Eduardo – himself a refugee in the United States – had made his position clear: “If my brother doesn’t win, I’m in favour of him leaving the country. Definitely,” he had said. But his exact whereabouts at the moment remain a complete mystery. Certainly, the aircraft mentioned by Infobae – a private flight arriving from Buenos Aires in the early hours of the morning – did not actually take off and is still in Puerto Iguazú, as confirmed by the Misiones police. Local media have reported a new departure time of 5.00 pm, which is 9.00 pm Italian time. The flight was cancelled immediately after it was discovered that one of the four passengers, who was reported missing, could be the politician. However, the Brazilian Federal Police are investigating to ascertain whether he has actually crossed the border.

According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, after establishing that he had not passed through any immigration checkpoints, the Brazilian authorities contacted their Argentine counterparts to ascertain whether the senator had left the country via an alternative route. The Argentine Ministry of Security, led by Alejandra Monteoliva, stated that there are no official records of Flávio Bolsonaro entering Argentina. In Brazil, Senator Rogério Marinho, general coordinator of Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign, denied that the politician had left the country. The order to hand over passports was issued on Monday, and Flávio had 24 hours to comply.