Brazilian authorities cancelled the passports of defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro after he failed to surrender them, while reports that he left for the US are denied by his campaign and unverified by police.
Brazilian authorities cancelled the passports of senator Flávio Bolsonaro on 27 October after he failed to hand them to the Federal Police by a Supreme Court deadline, two days after he lost the presidential run-off to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazilian outlets including Metrópoles and Folha de S.Paulo, as relayed by The Guardian, reported that he had left the country for the United States, but this has not been confirmed. A police source told AFP there was no formal record of him leaving Brazil, Argentine authorities told the BBC they had no record of his entry, and his campaign coordinator Rogério Marinho denied that he had gone.
The order came from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering, which Bolsonaro denies; The Guardian describes a scheme worth about £680 million involving betting companies. In a video on Monday, Bolsonaro said he had been banned from leaving Brazil and that he had never thought about leaving the country. The Supreme Court also ordered police on Tuesday to investigate his campaign over alleged foreign funding. Lula won the run-off with 51.79% of the vote to Bolsonaro's 48.21%; Bolsonaro has not conceded and has called for the election to be annulled, although his Liberal Party has accepted the result. Lawmakers from Lula's Workers' Party asked the court to order his arrest.
The episode adds to the uncertainty facing Brazil's right after the election. His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for plotting a coup, and his brother Eduardo lives in the United States and faces an arrest warrant in Brazil. Political scientists quoted by The Guardian say leadership of the right may now be up for grabs. His whereabouts were still unconfirmed at the time of writing, and this report will need updating as police and the Supreme Court establish where he is.
