Bolsonaro Family Departs Brazil: Route to Ecuador Confirmed

Flávio Bolsonaro and his family left Brazil for Ecuador early Wednesday, Argentine migration authorities confirmed. The senator, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and their two daughters, Carolina and Luiza, crossed into Argentina at 10:50 p.m. local time. They entered through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a main checkpoint connecting Brazil to the Argentine province of Misiones.

The group held valid travel documents and faced no legal barriers during entry, the Argentine authority stated. They were recorded by officials without incident. At 11:30 p.m., the four boarded a private charter flight operated by Baires Fly S.A. The flight plan filed with authorities indicated the aircraft’s destination was Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The departure followed a Tuesday noon deadline for Flávio Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports, ordered by Brazil’s Supreme Court. It is unclear if he met that deadline, though allies noted late Tuesday that he also holds an Italian passport. The U.S. Trump administration granted visas to the senator and his family the day before their exit.

The move creates immediate tension between Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Argentina’s President Javier Milei. Milei traveled to Brazil to support Bolsonaro’s campaign. Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, addressed supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia. He said he lacked precise details on Bolsonaro’s location but confirmed the senator had left the country.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula told the crowd. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

U.S. President Donald Trump praised the move early Wednesday. He called Bolsonaro and his family “fine people” and said he would approve of their visit. “The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. He added that he did not endorse the election results.

Lula won re-election by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the final round. Leaders worldwide and the Organization of American States congratulated him on the result. Flávio Bolsonaro received the Supreme Court order to surrender his passports on Monday. He shared a video showing himself outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence.