BRAZIL, October 28. /Dunyo IA/.  Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential election on October 25^th to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has arrived in the United States hours after his passports were cancelled, reports Dunyo IA correspondent, citing “BBC Brasil”.

In Florida, he met his younger brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro. However, the route he took to travel to the United States and his future plans remain unknown.

Earlier, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the politician to surrender his passports within 24 hours as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. After the deadline expired, the documents were cancelled, while Flávio Bolsonaro’s lawyers said they had no information about his whereabouts.

Senator had maintained that he had no intention of leaving the country and planned to lead the opposition. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official confirmed that the State Department would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family members and allow them to enter the country.

Flávio Bolsonaro is named in several investigations into alleged financial irregularities. One concerns the financing of a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup and is currently under house arrest.

Another case involves a lawyer suspected of laundering more than $1 billion through a fraudulent scheme. According to police, the senator had access to bank accounts belonging to a company owned by the lawyer.

Flávio Bolsonaro denies doing business with the lawyer and has described the seizure of his passports as an attempt to intimidate him. He has not been charged in connection with either investigation.

Yesterday, Supreme Court also instructed police to examine the senator’s election campaign for possible foreign funding.

It is worth recalling that on the eve, Flávio Bolsonaro lost the presidential run-off to incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, despite leading in some pre-election polls. Lula secured 51.79 percent of the vote, compared with 48.21 percent for his rival, a margin of approximately 4.4 million votes.

Flávio Bolsonaro refused to concede defeat and called for the results to be annulled, claiming that extending voting by two hours had put him at a disadvantage. He described the decision as a “dirty trick”, although the extension had been requested by both his party and supporters of his rival.

The Liberal Party, which fielded the senator as its candidate, accepted the election results but said the circumstances surrounding the extension of voting hours warranted an investigation.

Photo by “Bloomberg” IA