Brazil's Flávio Bolsonaro and family will get US visas after election
loss, State Department says
[October 28, 2026]
By MATTHEW LEE and MAURICIO SAVARESE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior State Department official said Tuesday that
Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his
weekend loss to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly
contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in
Latin America.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy
laws, said “the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro
and his family and allow them entry into the United States.”
Bolsonaro, who had President Donald Trump’s tacit support, had been
under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in
Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport.
The State Department official did not say if Bolsonaro had already left
Brazil or if he and his family were en route to the U.S. Lula told a few
dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he
did not have precise information of Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he
had left Brazil.
Bolsonaro's campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he hadn't spoken to
the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning.
“We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened,” Marinho
said. “I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a
break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I had from
him.”
Brazilian media reported many Bolsonaro allies were unable to reach him.
The Ministry of Security of Argentina denied the Brazilian senator had
entered that country.
Bolsonaro has family connections in the US
Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly
encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Flávio Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with Trump and visited the
White House in May. The family connections go deeper: Brother Eduardo
Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the
Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant
was recently issued for his arrest.
Trump did not offer a full-throated endorsement of Bolsonaro in the
runoff against Lula, as he has with some other right-of-center
candidates in Latin America. But he suggested Monday, without providing
evidence, that Brazil’s election was “rigged.”
Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve of Flávio Bolsonaro
coming to the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”
“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump
told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from
campaigning in Texas.
He stressed again, however, that he did not endorse a candidate in
Brazil's election. Asked about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, Trump said he
had heard he was in Argentina.
Bolsonaro's decision to leave Brazil came as a deadline for him to
surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon Tuesday.
It remained unclear whether he had complied.
Bolsonaro was served with the order to surrender his passports Monday.
He said he received it outside the home where his father, former
President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house
arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.
After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned
three months later.
Bolsonaro raises questions about election he lost
The sealed Supreme Court order, viewed by The Associated Press, was
issued the day of the election Sunday. Bolsonaro has refused to concede
defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.
Bolsonaro initially asked for the election results to be annulled after
an evening of chaos at some polling places that prompted authorities to
extend voting by two hours.
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Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after
the presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026.
(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
On Monday, he urged the electoral court to investigate alleged
election fraud and nullify Lula's and Vice President Geraldo
Alckmin's candidacies, which the electoral court has never done
before.
“I never thought about leaving the country,” Bolsonaro said in a
video published on his social media channels. “I will hand over my
passports and I will defend myself from this aberration. It is a
clear attempt to intimidate me. But I will not be silenced."
To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would have to present evidence of
fraud affecting Lula's 4.4 million-vote margin and convince the
eight-member electoral court before the results are certified on
Dec. 18.
Lula received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than
60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.
Lula celebrates his birthday and criticizes Bolsonaro
Lula turned 81 on Tuesday and celebrated with a birthday cake shared
with a few dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in
Brasilia.
He was emotional in a speech, saying he had yet to recover his voice
after a hard-fought campaign. He said Bolsonaro had left Brazil,
though he did not know his precise whereabouts. “I find myself
wondering what kind of guilt weighs on the conscience of a citizen
who has just lost an election and flees his own country. What kind
of guilt?”
Lula suggested Bolsonaro's departure fit a family pattern. Brazil is
“the second country” of the Bolsonaro family, he said.
“The first is licking American boots,” Lula said. “Those who are not
liable do not fear. A fellow that secretly leaves his country,
that's because he is liable for something."
Bolsonaro said in a video posted Monday on his social media channels
that he was attempting to organize opposition among his
congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year
term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027, which will also cause him
to lose special jurisdiction at the country's Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court for
alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases.
In one, he's accused of using a sports betting company to launder
fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior
citizens. In the other, he is accused of accepting millions of
dollars from a disgraced banker.
He has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, and has claimed Supreme
Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is heading one of the
investigations, is a Lula ally. Prosecutors suspect the funds from
the banker were used to pay his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s,
expenses and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro’s political agenda with the
Trump administration, documents show.
Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, also
questioned de Moraes’ objectivity on Tuesday. “Seven minutes after
the election, Alexandre de Moraes ordered his passports to be
seized,” Marcon said. Bolsonaro “will represent us in a free
country. He will continue to be our leader.”
___
Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writer Seung Min
Kim contributed to this report.
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