Flávio Bolsonaro’s Miami arrival clears up early confusion over his whereabouts

Reuters footage showed the Brazilian senator getting off a private plane at a Miami airport on Wednesday, 28 October. The Associated Press reported that he and his family arrived at Miami-Opa Locka at about 9.30am local time.

The timing matters because the BBC had earlier reported, citing sources, that Bolsonaro was already in the US on Tuesday. Its later account described confusion over his whereabouts. According to an Argentine immigration statement reported by La Nación, he entered Argentina with his family at 10.50pm on Tuesday and boarded a private flight bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador, at 11.30pm. CNN Brasil said one of its sources had also prematurely placed him in the US. The later accounts establish that he reached Miami, but not when or why the earlier sources got his location wrong.

His departure followed a court order barring him from leaving Brazil. Brazil’s federal police said his Brazilian ordinary and diplomatic passports were cancelled after the order, and that he did not hand over any passports of other nationalities within the required 24 hours. The force said it had no official record of him leaving through a Brazilian border checkpoint and was investigating his compliance with the court orders. It stressed that travel-document restrictions alone do not make someone a fugitive or authorise his arrest. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing in the financial investigation; the BBC reported that he had not been charged.

Bolsonaro has challenged the election result and alleged fraud. Brazil’s electoral court says President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Sunday’s run-off by 4,430,191 votes, and Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party has accepted the result.