Senator Flávio Bolsonaro heads to US following Brazil election loss

By Max Saltman, Mauricio Torres, Anabella Gonzalez, Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — 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.

A US official told CNN that Bolsonaro is currently flying to Florida. It is unclear how he left Brazil. Bolsonaro said Monday that police forbade him from leaving the country.

A Brazilian source close to Bolsonaro said that the politician had feared arrest in Brazil, where he is under investigation by the country’s highest court for alleged acts of corruption, money laundering and currency evasion. Bolsonaro denies all wrongdoing.

Speculation about his movements mounted after Argentine news outlet Infobae reported that Bolsonaro had left Brazil via Argentina after losing Sunday’s runoff presidential election against leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Argentine government said in a statement that it has “no record of Flávio Bolsonaro entering” the country.

Brazil’s Federal Police canceled Bolsonaro’s passports after he failed to surrender them and are currently searching for him, CNN Brasil reports.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to turn in his passports within 24 hours on Monday. CNN has reached out to Bolsonaro, his political party and the Brazilian Federal Police for comment on the senator’s whereabouts.

Bolsonaro said Brazilian police had informed him of the order in person and told him he was banned from leaving Brazil. In a video posted to Instagram, the senator denied that he intended to flee.

Bolsonaro joins a large community of Brazilian conservatives in exile – including former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem, podcaster Paulo Figueiredo, and his own brother Eduardo, who lives in Texas.

Eduardo suggested shortly before the runoff election that Flávio ought to leave Brazil if his bid for the presidency failed. On Tuesday, Eduardo called rumors that his brother had fled a “lie.”

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