Bolsonaro, who lost Brazil’s presidential election, travelled to Argentina and then on to Miami with a technical stopover in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the paper said, citing sources. A Gulfstream G400 landed at Opa Locka Executive Airport near Miami on Wednesday shortly after 9.20 am local time. Photographs taken by The Associated Press showed him stepping off the plane.
In a statement on X, Bolsonaro said “criminals stole the election” and described himself as Brazil’s rightful president-elect. He thanked US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei for helping him leave the country. He and his family received US visas in Miami.
Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo, citing its sources, reported that the Trump administration “actively participated” in planning the trip. Argentine media said Santiago Caputo, one of Milei’s closest advisers, was in Puerto Iguazu, the Argentine border town from where the jet departed.
A charter flight booked by a stranger?
La Nacion said a representative of charter firm Baires Fly received a call on Monday afternoon from a US intermediary seeking a flight from Puerto Iguazu to Miami for “eight Brazilian passengers”.
The company did not know the intermediary and demanded payment upfront. The money was transferred quickly, and two hours later the jet, with two pilots and a flight attendant, was ready to leave Buenos Aires.
“At that moment we did not know the passenger would be Bolsonaro. Only later did we realise it”, a source at Baires Fly told the newspaper. The source declined to name the intermediary.
The aircraft reached Puerto Iguazu before midnight on Monday, but the passengers did not show up, and the crew was sent to a hotel. By Tuesday, media around the world were speculating that Bolsonaro had left Brazil in secret. Some reports placed him on the plane, others already in the United States.
The jet waited until late that night. Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters, four passengers rather than eight, then arrived at the airport in a white van with Brazilian plates and took off after midnight.
The pilots chose to avoid Brazilian airspace “out of caution to avoid problems”, a person from the aviation industry told La Nacion, which forced the stopover in Guayaquil. The usual eight-hour flight took more than 10.
La Nacion also noted that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in the election, has flown on the same aircraft at least twice.
Bolsonaro is under investigation in Brazil in several cases, including over alleged foreign financing of his campaign, money laundering, tax offences and corruption. He has not been charged, but a court barred him from leaving the country and the authorities revoked his Brazilian passport.
Family ties
Bolsonaro’s father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election. He also refused to concede then and went to the United States, but returned and was convicted last year.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former lawmaker, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison for lobbying the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Brazilian officials and judges to influence his father’s trial.
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Source: PAP, Polish Radio