Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro lands in Miami

It is a pretty significant exception to the widespread immigration crackdown in the United States under Donald Trump. After the U.S. president confirmed that Washington would grant the failed Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and his family entry visas to the United States, he, his wife and two daughters have indeed now landed in Miami after transiting through Argentina and Ecuador. Now, as a reminder, Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court on accusations of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. in two separate cases. For more, then we'll cross to our correspondent, Tim Vickery in Rio de Janeiro. Hi, Tim. So can you take us through the process leading up to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family's departure to the United States? Well, there was lots of speculation and lots of misinformation. Had he entered Argentina? Had he already entered the United States? These were stories that were coming out yesterday, even from sources in the US government, it now seems very, very clear that there was false information put out deliberately in order to camouflage what was really happening. And that was that it seems that Flavio Bolsonaro crossed the frontier from Brazil to Argentina on Tuesday night and then in the early hours of the morning took a plane. Now, the route to Guayaquil in Ecuador is significant because that is over Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and then arriving in Ecuador. So it's a route that hasn't taken him over any Brazilian airspace. And from there, from a little stop over in Guayaquil, on to Miami, where he has now landed. So the facts are out. And I think what we had before was calculated misinformation to camouflage what was really happening. So Flavio Bolsonaro is now abroad in the United States then, Tim. His father, of course, still under arrest at home in Brazil. What does this mean for the Bolsonaros? Is this the end of their influence on Brazilian right-wing politics? Well, if there's one thing that Brazilian politics teaches you, it's never say never. The Bolsonaros remain a force. Jair's wife, Michelle, is perhaps now the political leader of the clan in Congress. But this is, the flight of Flavio is a serious blow uh it does come across as an admission of guilt he's under investigation hasn't been charged yet he's under investigation on serious corruption charges and there has always been smoke around uh flavio and corruption accusations you might remember that in the government of jair bolsonaro his father the justice minister resigned in protest at jair trying to stop him from investigating Flavio's activities. So this does look, does come across as an admission of guilt. And in political terms, this means that he's abandoning his voters less than 24 hours after he promised to stay in Brazil and lead the opposition. Now, I imagine that Flavio in the United States will push the line about rigged elections, because that's what the US right wing want to hear. In Brazil, this is not a huge issue. All of the main right-wing players have accepted the election results, including Tarcísio de Freitas. Now, Tarcísio de Freitas is a name for your notebook. He, I think, should have been the right-wing candidate in this election. He's the governor of São Paulo. Now, he is someone who is capable of retaining Bolsonaro's support without alienating the center. And it would seem to me that Tarcísio is the big winner of what's going on over the last few days because he has a real chance now to establish himself and not the Bolsonaros as a leader of Brazil's right wing. Tim Vickery, our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro. Thank you very much.