Flavio Bolsonaro lands in US, declares himself 'leader' of Brazil

Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro declared himself the rightful leader of Brazil after landing in Miami with his family on Wednesday.

Bolsonaro fled Brazil after the Supreme Court asked him to hand over his passports so he couldn't leave the country.

The right-wing senator had not conceded defeat in Sunday's presidential election to rival, President Luiz Inacio "Lula"da Silva.

Bolsonaro lost elections on Sunday and alleged irregularities. His party has acknowledged the results of Sunday's elections and international observers have observed it was fair. The chief of the Brazilian electoral authority said Wednesday that vote proceeded normally and in full accordance with the country's laws and constitution.

In an initial open letter posted to X, Bolsonaro declared himself the "elected president." He then deleted the version and updated it with another letter in which he said he was the rightful "leader" of Brazil.

Bolsonaro faces criminal investigations into alleged financial crimes before the country's Supreme Court. But he has cast those investigations as a political witch hunt against his family by left-leaning justices.

"I want to say, not only to my 60 million voters but to the Brazilian people, that I am the leader and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organization that has established a tyranny," he said in the updated version.

Asked by reporters at Joint Base Andrews about Bolsonaro's comments, US President Donald Trump declined to comment, reiterating earlier views on how it was "a very strange election."

The US State Department has said it will grant Bolsonaro and his family US visas.

When did Bolsonaro arrive and how did he reach Miami?

Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters were seen disembarking a Gulfstream G400 plane and heading into the Miami-Opa Locka airport on Wednesday morning.

Their journey across the Americas had captured regional attention.

The quartet first flew into Argentina late on Tuesday, then took a private jet to the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. From there, they continued to Miami, in Florida.

Bolsonaro would lose his immunity from prosecution in February when his term in the Senate ends. On Monday, he had said in an Instagram post that he had no intention of leaving the country and that he would "hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me."

According to the AFP news agency, Bolsonaro also holds Italian citizenship and so was able to travel despite his Brazilian and diplomatic passports being canceled.

Potential source of strain between Trump's US and Lula's Brazil

Bolsonaro's departure and his arrival in Florida — like his father Jair Bolsonaro before him after Brazil's previous presidential elections — could deepen a rift between the two most populous countries in the Americas.

During the election campaign, incumbent leftist President Lula had accused the Trump administration of colluding with the Bolsonaro family in a bid to help them return to power.

After the election results, Trump appeared to question the integrity of the vote, saying he thought the extension to voting times was a "very bad look." He had also alleged in the past that Jair Bolsonaro was the victim of judicial persecution in Brazil.

Bolsonaro senior is now in jail in Brazil on charges of leading a conspiracy designed to keep him in power despite defeat in 2022's presidential election.