Brazil’s top opposition leader has reportedly gone from running for president to running from the country — and he was heading for the U.S. on Tuesday, according to news accounts.
Flávio Bolsonaro, who won the support of approximately 60 million voters in Sunday’s presidential runoff election, has disappeared from public view, according to The Associated Press.
The U.K.-based leftist newspaper The Guardian, meanwhile, citing the Brazilian news outlet Metropoles, reported that Bolsonaro plans to seek political asylum in the U.S.
CNN reported Tuesday that Bolsonaro fled to avoid arrest on charges including corruption and money laundering.
Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro has left Brazil and is headed to the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election, two sources have confirmed to CNN. https://t.co/3S1Vxtb3zM
— CNN (@CNN) October 27, 2026
Bolsonaro, a sitting senator from a leading right-wing family of Brazil, was defeated in Sunday’s runoff by incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to the AP, Lula da Silva won about 64 million votes to Bolsonaro’s roughly 60 million votes.
The results came as something of a surprise, according to some reports. Bolsonaro had won the most votes of any candidate in the first round of the presidential election on Oct. 4 but fell shy of the 50 percent he needed to win the presidency outright.
Lula da Silva, a leftist, also defeated Bolsonaro’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, in 2022, the AP reported.
Jair Bolsonaro, 71, is on house arrest after being convicted in September 2025 of attempting a coup following the 2022 vote, according to the AP. He received a 27-year sentence.
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The younger Bolsonaro had been ordered to surrender his passport by Tuesday morning. The order was signed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, according to The Guardian.
Moraes was the judge who oversaw Jair Bolsonaro’s trial and sentencing, the newspaper reported. That probably didn’t look like a good sign to Flavio Bolsonaro.
The Guardian, citing a Brazilian news outlet, said Bolsonaro met with friends and attorneys Monday and “made it clear he was afraid of being arrested.”
He has denied wrongdoing and also refused to concede Sunday’s election, calling the results “rigged,” according to the AP.
🚨 BREAKING: The Trump administration plans to GRANT ASYLUM to right-wing Brazil presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, after he FLED the country because of impending persecution — CNN Brasil Bolsonaro is also traveling to America with his family 🙏🏻 Authorities moved to seize his passport and HUNT HIM DOWN but they got OUT-SMARTED! Reports say Flavio is en route to Florida. President Trump himself said publicly it looked like a rigged election and he’s right 🇺🇸🇧🇷 Look what socialism causes!
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 27, 2026
While some reports indicated that Bolsonaro had fled to neighboring Argentina — a country with a conservative president sometimes called “Argentina’s Trump” — Argentina’s security ministry denied Bolsonaro had entered the country, according to the AP.
Bolsonaro’s older brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, lives in Texas, according to The Guardian. He has also been targeted by Brazilian prosecutors.
A Brazilian court in June convicted Eduardo Bolsonaro in absentia and sentenced him to four years in prison for allegedly lobbying the Trump administration during Jair Bolsonaro’s trial to sanction justices hearing the case, according to The Guardian.
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