The ruling follows his presidential-runoff defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The court gave him 24 hours to surrender his passports; two police sources say they were cancelled on 27 October after he missed that deadline.
Brazil’s Supreme Court barred senator Flávio Bolsonaro from leaving the country on 26 October during a money-laundering investigation, in which he denies wrongdoing. Reuters, in an account carried by Armenpress on 28 October, said three sources confirmed that he had left Brazil for the United States despite the restriction.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the restrictions after Bolsonaro lost the 25 October presidential runoff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As the Guardian described on 26 October, the order cancelled all his passports, including his diplomatic passport, and required their surrender within 24 hours. Police said they cancelled the documents on 27 October after he missed that deadline.
The Reuters account said Bolsonaro left after refusing to comply with the passport order. One source close to the family said he had landed in Florida but declined to specify where. The location of Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters remained unclear.
A senior US State Department official said on 27 October that the department would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family and allow them into the US. That commitment concerned entry, not a grant of asylum.
An earlier Reuters account carried by France 24 on 27 October relayed separate newspaper reports. Folha de São Paulo, citing people close to the family, said the US administration knew of his departure and would grant asylum. Correio Brasiliense said he had arrived in the US and, citing Federal Police sources, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had coordinated the operation.
After Brazil’s Supreme Court barred him from leaving, the senator and his family reached Florida on October 28 via Argentina and Ecuador.
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A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Bolsonaro had not left through any regular migration point. Metrópoles, citing people close to the family, said he was aboard a US-bound flight without identifying its departure point. Allies told the website that he was expected in Florida on 27 October and planned to request political asylum. Allies separately told Folha de São Paulo that a lawyer close to the family had arranged the journey. The Guardian relayed those accounts on 27 October.
Folha also said people in the family’s inner circle had been told he had travelled through Argentina. Argentina’s government said it had no record of his entry, and a government spokesperson said there was no asylum request there. Brazilians can enter Argentina with an identity card rather than a passport.
The passport ruling concerns Bolsonaro’s possible involvement in money laundering. It also bars contact with his friend Willer Tomaz, a lawyer linked to betting companies that police suspect were used to launder about £680 million. The restrictions are not a finding of guilt.
The Supreme Court ordered police on 27 October to investigate Bolsonaro’s election campaign over alleged foreign funding, the BBC said. That inquiry is separate from the money-laundering case behind the travel restrictions.
In a video on 26 October, Bolsonaro said the decision was based on his brother’s 23 October interview urging him to leave Brazil if he lost. Bolsonaro denied having said he would leave, saying: “I never thought about leaving the country.”
Two Federal Police sources said on 27 October that police were trying to locate Bolsonaro. His aides either declined to disclose his location or said they did not know it.
Lawmakers from Lula’s Workers’ Party asked the Supreme Court to order Bolsonaro’s arrest and requested that his name be added to Interpol’s Red Notice list. Their request awaits a court decision; it is not an arrest order.
