Bolsonaro's escape to the US: How it happened

Next, wanted as part of a fraud investigation in Brazil, the defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has resurfaced with his family in the United States. An alert was raised when Bolsonaro failed to report to police to hand over his passport on Tuesday. In the wake of his election defeat on Sunday, the legal case against him has been put back in the spotlight. He is charged with fraud and money laundering and a multi-million dollar betting scandal. Ketevan Gorgosiani joins us, our international affairs editor, for more on this one. Ketevan, after about 24 hours of questioning surrounding his whereabouts, Flavio Bolsonaro officially lands in the United States. I mean, this is the stuff that maybe Hollywood movies are made of. Tell us more about how he managed to get out of Brazil. Well, first of all, there's the question of the passports that you mentioned. On Monday, the authorities asking him to hand over his passports, both the regular and the diplomatic, by midday on Tuesday. day. Initially, Bolsonaro had said, I have no intention to flee the country. I will hand over my passports. But obviously he didn't do so. And so the authorities said that they had canceled his passport. And that's important for later on in the trip. But he started his trip, it seems, by car, leaving Brasilia with his family to cross over into Argentina at Puerto Iguazú, where he got on a private jet, headed to Guayaquil in Ecuador, where he did a little one hour layover, probably to refuel and then headed off to the United States, Miami, Florida, where he is now. He had said that he had no plans to flee, but eventually he did, sort of following in the footsteps of his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who, remember, back in 2022, did pretty much the same thing, flying off to Miami, Florida, after refusing to recognize the victory of Lula in the 2022 elections and even attempting to overturn those results. He stayed in the United States for about three months before returning to Brazil. And now he is under house arrest. So The question now is, what will Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio Bolsonaro, do next? But for now, he is at least in Miami. There are many questions as to how he got to where he is right now. But of course, none of it could have been possible without those three countries that you've mentioned. Absolutely. And we'll start with Argentina, where at least we have an official explanation as to how this happened. And the authorities there, the migration authorities, saying that Bolsonaro and his family had valid documentation and there was no legal impediment to entering the country, which brings us back to those passport questions. Is it because the Brazilian authorities didn't cancel the passports early enough or is it because Flavio Bolsonaro is believed to have another passport from Italy this time, which would have allowed him to cross over and have the Argentines say he had valid travel documentation? And there is a reason why Argentina would want to help out Flavio Bolsonaro. Of course, Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, is a big supporter of Flavio Bolsonaro. He even came personally to Brazil at the start of the campaign to endorse Flavio Bolsonaro, to help him out. They're, of course, part of this sort of conservative movement in South and Central America. So here it's clear why there would have been a reason for authorities to sort of help out Flavio Bolsonaro. Then you go to Ecuador. Ecuador hasn't made any real official comments about this matter. Daniel Noboa, the president of the country, he did not officially endorse Flavio Bolsonaro during this campaign. He also congratulated Lula on the election, recognized the results of the election. But Noboa, just like Milei, just like Bolsonaro, are part of this conservative movement and, of course, allied with who? The U.S. president, Donald Trump, which leads us to the final stop of Flavio Bolsonaro's trip to the United States. On Tuesday, the State Department had announced that they would give a visa to Bolsonaro and his family, would allow them to come on to U.S. soil. Donald Trump in recent days also showing support for Bolsonaro. He said that the Bolsonaros in general, the son and the father, were fine people. But he did insist on both days when he talked about this matter that he had not endorsed Flavio Bolsonaro in this election, even though he did say that he found things that were a little bit odd in the elections, even saying that the election in Brazil was possibly rigged without giving any evidence but clearly the Americans helping Flavio Bolsonaro they're giving him the legal authorization to be on U.S. soil the question is for how long indeed Trump is so predictable if his guy loses it was rigged if he wins three cheers for democracy it's a strange one and I think one day they'll make a film about it Kedvan thank you very much indeed the Flavio Bolsonaro story continues and of course we'll follow all developments. Thanks again to Kedvan Gorgistani, our International Affairs Editor.