Bolsonaro flies to Miami after losing Brazil’s election runoff

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who lost Sunday’s runoff in the presidential election, has flown to Miami with his family and declared from there that he is the elected president. As Reuters notes, he has offered no evidence for his claims of electoral fraud, and international observers called the vote fair.

Bolsonaro left for the US without complying with the supreme court’s order to hand over his passports as part of a court investigation into two cases.

The flight to Florida

Late on Tuesday, Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters crossed the border between Brazil and Argentina with valid travel documents. They soon left on a private plane and, after a stopover in Ecuador, landed on Wednesday morning local time at Opa Locka Executive Airport in Miami, Florida.

In an open letter handed to journalists by his allies, Bolsonaro addressed his “60 million voters” and the whole Brazilian people. He said he is the elected president and that the “criminals who stole the election from Brazil” belong to a criminal organization that has established a tyranny. He thanked US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei for helping him leave the country and for receiving him.

What his position rests on

Bolsonaro disputes the result because a supreme court justice appointed by Lula extended voting by two hours on Sunday over alleged restrictions on voting rights in a northeastern state that traditionally leans left. Those allegations were raised by Lula’s campaign. Bolsonaro’s own team, however, also asked for the election to be extended, citing rain in the southern states, where conservative voters predominate.

According to analysts, fewer than 35 thousand people voted during the extra time, just 0.03 percent of all votes cast. Lula won by roughly 4.5 million votes.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz