Flavio Bolsonaro's passports cancelled - sources

Updated / Tuesday, 27 Oct 2026 16:30

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Brazil's defeated presidential candidate, right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro, has had his passports cancelled, a police source told AFP on condition of anonymity, amid speculation over his whereabouts.

"Flavio Bolsonaro's passports have been cancelled," the source said, adding that "there is no formal record of Flavio Bolsonaro leaving the country."

Argentina's security ministry and migration authorities denied local media reports that Mr Bolsonaro had entered the neighbouring country.

Flavio Bolsonaro last spoke publicly yesterday afternoon in a video on social media saying he had been banned from leaving the country and ordered to surrender his passports.

The right-wing senator lost an election bid to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and has refused to concede defeat.

He said the order to surrender his passports was based on a comment by his US-based brother Eduardo Bolsonaro, who told a US podcast two days before the election that "if my brother does not win, I am in favour that he would leave the country".

Brazilian police are probing Flavio Bolsonaro for corruption over the financing of the biopic "Dark Horse" about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest for plotting a coup.

Whereabouts unknown

The mystery over his whereabouts has raised concerns he could follow the path of his father, who moved to the United States after refusing to concede losing to Mr Lula in 2022.

He eventually returned to Brazil but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup.

His son has yet to officially concede defeat - saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities - but his Liberal Party said yesterday it acknowledged Mr Lula's victory.

Argentina's government said it had no record of Bolsonaro entering the country.

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Following media reports about a private plane at Iguazu International Airport on the Argentina-Brazil border, Argentine authorities checked the aircraft and its crew, finding no flight plan listing the Bolsonaro family, the statement added.

A spokesperson for right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei, who has yet to congratulate Mr Lula on his victory, said: "There is no asylum request," declining to give further details.

Meanwhile, a senior Brazilian Federal Police official said Mr Bolsonaro has not exited the country via any regular migration point.

Brazilians only need an ID card, rather than a passport, to enter neighbouring Argentina.

Right-wing influencer Paulo Figueiredo, who serves as a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the Bolsonaro family, declined to answer questions about Mr Bolsonaro's whereabouts.

"After months of intense work that has been unfairly thwarted, I am not in the mood to speak to the press," he said in a message.