Flávio Bolsonaro Unseen After Missing Passport Deadline
Flávio Bolsonaro, a far-right senator who lost Sunday's presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has not been seen since Monday. He did not appear by an 11am deadline on Tuesday to surrender his passport to Brazil's federal police, the national police force, according to The Guardian.
The passport order comes from the Supreme Court, Brazil's highest court, as part of a federal police investigation into possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme worth about £680m ($905m) that involved betting companies. A justice cancelled his passport minutes after Sunday's result was announced, the Guardian reported. Reuters reported that Brazil cancelled his passports on Tuesday after he failed to comply with a Supreme Court order to turn them in.
Flávio Bolsonaro has said that federal police officers ordered him on the street to hand over his passports and that he was prohibited from leaving the country, according to Reuters reporting from Monday. In a video posted on Monday about the passport cancellation, he said: "I never thought about leaving the country." He has not conceded defeat, and after his passport was seized he again questioned the result of Brazil's ballot boxes, according to Brasil de Fato.
Several outlets have reported where he may be. Infobae reported that he fled to Argentina on Monday night and was expected to board a private jet in Puerto Iguazú, a town on the Argentine side of the border, bound for the United States, but the plane did not take off. Todo Noticias reported that he crossed into Argentina on foot and abandoned the plan to board the plane once news of his movements leaked. Folha de S.Paulo reported that allies in the Bolsonaro family's inner circle had been told he had left for Argentina and intended to travel onward to the US.
There is no record of Flávio Bolsonaro passing through a regular Brazilian immigration checkpoint. Brazil's federal police are asking Argentine authorities whether there is any record of him entering Argentina.
The case sits within a wider family legal story. His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest for attempting a coup. His brother Eduardo Bolsonaro lives in self-imposed exile in the United States and has an outstanding arrest warrant in Brazil, after being sentenced to four years in prison for trying to interfere in their father's trial by lobbying Donald Trump to impose sanctions, or penalties, on the justices hearing the case. In an interview on Friday, 23 October, Eduardo said that Flávio should leave Brazil if he lost the election.
Argentina has come up before. In August 2025, Brazilian police filed court documents accusing Jair Bolsonaro of planning to flee to Argentina to seek asylum, meaning protection from a foreign government.
