The media report came a day after the Supreme Court ordered President Bolsonaro to hand over his passport as part of a money laundering investigation.
Published October 27, 2026
U.S. officials announced that the Trump administration will issue visas to Brazilian Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro and his family, allowing them to enter the U.S. after news outlets reported that Bolsonaro had fled Brazil following his presidential election loss.
The news broke on Tuesday, a day after Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered Bolsonaro to return his passport as part of an investigation into money laundering allegations. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and said on Monday he would remain in the country and lead the opposition party.
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Lula has previously accused members of the Bolsonaro family of seeking U.S. intervention in Brazil’s affairs for political gain, and called the right-wing senator’s actions shameful.
“This is what the Bolsonaro family is,” Lula said. “Brazil is their second country and the United States is their first.”
Bolsonaro, the son of former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, initially refused to recognize the election results and said he would seek to have them annulled. The party issued a statement on Monday saying it accepted the election results, in which the conservative candidate lost by more than 4.4 million votes.
US President Donald Trump responded by casting doubt on the election results, telling reporters: “It looked like another fraudulent election.”
There has been no evidence that the vote was compromised by fraud. Critics took note of the last-minute decision to extend voting hours, but in the end Lula’s victory proved overwhelming, and the extension was unlikely to significantly change the margin of more than 4.4 million votes.
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered Bolsonaro to surrender his passport following a criminal investigation into money laundering allegations. He claimed the move was part of a coordinated effort to politically intimidate him.
Bolsonaro is also under house arrest in Brazil after his defeat in 2022 to Lula for his role in a coup plot.
Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in the US state of Texas, had publicly encouraged Bolsonaro to leave Brazil if he lost the election.
It remains unclear how Bolsonaro was able to leave the country, with a 24-hour deadline to hand over his passport. A senior federal police official told Reuters that Bolsonaro had not left the country through the normal border crossing.
