Brazil's Court Orders Bolsonaro to Surrender Passports

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered Flávio Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports as part of an alleged money-laundering probe, barring him from leaving the country. Reports that he fled to the United States after losing the Oct. 25 presidential runoff collided with his statements and official accounts: his whereabouts remained unclear, and authorities in Argentina denied that he had entered their country.

The order and the unanswered questions

The sealed order was issued Sunday and served Monday, according to The Associated Press. The deadline to hand over the passports expired at noon Tuesday. The AP reported that it remained unclear whether Bolsonaro had complied; a Buenos Aires Times report, citing an unnamed police source, said the passports had been canceled, but there was no formal record of him leaving Brazil. The Rio Times said Federal Police sources reported the passports canceled and that he had not passed a regular border post.

Al Jazeera and Bloomberg reported that Bolsonaro fled to the United States hours after the election. Bloomberg attributed the report to Folha de S.Paulo. Al Jazeera also reported that a senior U.S. State Department official said the Trump administration would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family. Those reports sat alongside uncertainty, not confirmation: the AP said Bolsonaro’s whereabouts were unclear and a spokesperson hadn’t answered its request for comment. AFP, cited by Buenos Aires Times, reported that members of his inner circle didn’t respond to requests for comment. A motorcade left his Brasília residence, but AFP couldn’t determine whether he was in one of the vehicles.

Bolsonaro said in a social-media video Monday that he had no plans to leave Brazil. Buenos Aires Times quoted him saying, “I never had any intention of leaving the country. I will surrender my passports and defend myself against this travesty.” The Rio Times reported that he called the passport order “this aberration, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me” and asked, “Is this justice?”

Argentina’s National Directorate of Migration said it had “no record of Flávio Bolsonaro entering the Argentine Republic.” The agency said authorities checked a private aircraft and its crew at the international airport in Iguazú, Misiones province, found the company’s documentation in order, and that “no flight plan involving the Bolsonaro family was submitted.” A source at Argentina’s Security Ministry told AFP, “It's all false. He never entered the country.” President Javier Milei’s spokesman, Adrián Ravier, said Bolsonaro had made “no request for asylum.”

A ballot result meets a court challenge

The AP reported that Bolsonaro initially sought to annul the election after polling hours were extended by two hours amid disruption at some polling places. On Monday, he urged the electoral court to investigate alleged fraud and nullify the candidacies of Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. The court had never done so before, the AP reported.

To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would need to present evidence of fraud affecting Lula’s 4.4 million-vote margin and persuade the eight-member electoral court before results are certified on Dec. 18. Lula received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro. Al Jazeera reported that no evidence had emerged of election malfeasance and that the late decision to extend polling hours was unlikely to change the outcome.

The Buenos Aires Times reported that Bolsonaro’s party and allies accepted the result after he refused to concede, leaving him politically isolated. The Rio Times said the Liberal Party, led by Valdemar Costa Neto, recognized Lula’s win in a note Monday while seeking clarification about electioneering social spending. Bolsonaro said, “It wasn't I who lost, it was the system that won.” The Rio Times reported that he alleged the “largest vote buying” in Brazilian election history without presenting evidence.

The passport order came amid a sealed inquiry into suspected money laundering involving Bolsonaro and lawyer Willer Tomaz; both deny wrongdoing, and no charge against Bolsonaro had been made public, the Rio Times reported. The AP said Bolsonaro is under Supreme Court investigation in two cases alleging corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and denies wrongdoing in both. The order’s authority is clear. His location, and whether he surrendered the documents, were not.