Brazil has summoned Argentina’s top diplomat in the country to answer questions about right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, who fled first to Argentina, then to the United States, after losing Sunday’s presidential election.
Diplomatic Summons and Denials
On Thursday, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called in Argentina’s charge d’affaires, Maria Emilia Cortes, according to government sources speaking to Reuters. Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, however, denied on social media that his government received a formal request for explanations regarding Bolsonaro’s decision to flee into Argentina late on Tuesday. The circumstances surrounding Bolsonaro’s departure threaten to further strain relations between Brazil’s recently re-elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentinian counterpart, libertarian Javier Milei.
After Sunday’s election, Bolsonaro was given a deadline to surrender his passports. Officials ordered him to remain in the country as part of a legal case. He is part of an ongoing investigation into a money-laundering scheme, known as the Banco Master scandal. Investigators are probing a multimillion-dollar payment Bolsonaro received from Banco Master’s former head, Daniel Vorcaro, allegedly to finance a film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. The younger Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated.
Election Defeat and Departure
A senator since 2019, Bolsonaro ran this year as the right-wing presidential candidate for his father’s political movement, the Liberal Party. After advancing to the run-off, the senator fell short by more than 4 million votes. Lula won Sunday’s race with 51.8 percent of the vote, securing a historic fourth non-consecutive term. Bolsonaro, however, has refused to concede, though the Liberal Party has acknowledged Lula’s victory. Instead, he made an unsubstantiated allegation of electoral malfeasance, pointing to a Supreme Court decision to extend voting hours on Sunday. Both candidates’ campaigns had requested extensions, though for different reasons: Bolsonaro’s camp pointed to inclement weather delaying voters in parts of Brazil, while Lula’s party raised concerns about efforts to restrict public transport on election day. But Bolsonaro argued that the last-minute extension had disadvantaged voters in regions considered right-wing strongholds.
In an Instagram livestream on Friday, Flavio Bolsonaro claimed to be the victim of persecution back home, alleging that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had made false accusations against him. He also suggested there were irregularities in the run-off, comparing them to illegal football goals that were not disallowed, without providing details. After arriving in Miami on Wednesday, he declared himself the legitimate president-elect of Brazil. He, his wife and two daughters had travelled from Brazil through northern Argentina, before boarding a chartered aircraft that passed through Ecuador to reach the US.
International Reactions
US President Donald Trump and Milei, both right-wing leaders, have been openly supportive of the Bolsonaro family. The Brazilian senator later thanked Milei for his assistance, although he did not provide details about the nature of the help. A spokesperson for the Argentinian president described the journey as a rescue, stating that Bolsonaro had escaped from the claws of communism, which seeks to imprison all opposition figures. Trump has also suggested that Sunday’s election was rigged, though he declined to take sides after the result was announced. The US president has previously issued sanctions and tariffs in response to the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, after the former Brazilian president denied his defeat in the 2022 election. He was convicted in 2024 of plotting a coup to prevent Lula from taking power and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Relations between Lula and Milei have been strained since the Argentinian leader took office in 2023, with Milei repeatedly criticising Lula. The diplomatic dispute follows an earlier deterioration in relations, with the South American countries each recalling their ambassadors in August after a series of public disagreements.
