Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro arrived Wednesday in Miami from Ecuador, after he defied a Brazilian judicial order to surrender his passports in connection with a corruption and money-laundering investigation.
Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Within two days, speculation about his whereabouts had begun. The son of former president Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation over ties to a banker accused of financial misconduct and to a man suspected of money laundering.
On Tuesday morning, he missed the Brazilian Supreme Court’s deadline to surrender his passports.
A senior State Department official said Bolsonaro and his family had been granted visas allow them into the United States.
According to flight-tracking services, the Gulfstream jet carrying Bolsonaro departed Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Wednesday at 4:22 a.m. It arrived at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, a joint civil-military airport, and Bolsonaro emerged around 9:30 a.m.