45-year-old Senator Flávio Bolsonaro Crosses Border to Argentina at 10:50 p.m.

Flávio Bolsonaro crossed into Argentina at 10:50 p.m. local time on Wednesday, according to Argentina's migration authority. He was accompanied by his wife, Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and their two daughters, Carolina and Luiza. The group arrived at the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a major checkpoint connecting Brazil to the Argentine province of Misiones. Officials confirmed the family possessed valid travel documents and faced no legal barriers to entry.

At 11:30 p.m., the four passengers boarded a private charter flight operated by Baires Fly S.A. The aircraft departed for Guayaquil, Ecuador, shortly after clearing immigration. Argentina's migration authority stated on X that the transit was recorded without incidents. The move follows a U.S. visa approval granted by the Trump administration the previous day.

Bolsonaro, 45, is a senator and the defeated candidate in the recent Brazilian presidential election. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who turned 81 on Tuesday, addressed a small group of supporters in Brasilia on Wednesday. He said he did not have precise information regarding Bolsonaro's location but confirmed his departure. "I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true," Lula said. He added that the act of leaving was shameful.

The departure occurred after a deadline for Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon on Tuesday. The Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the handover on Monday. Bolsonaro said in a video that he received the order outside his home, where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest. Allies indicated late Tuesday that Flávio Bolsonaro also holds an Italian passport.

The exit is likely to strain relations between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei. Milei traveled to Brazil to campaign for Bolsonaro in the final stretch of the election. Trump, who returned from a trip to Texas on Tuesday, told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States. He called the former vice president and his family fine people and described the election as strange and terrible. The Organization of American States and world leaders congratulated Lula, who won the second round by a margin of approximately 4.4 million votes. Neither Bolsonaro's team nor the Brazilian government responded immediately to requests for comment.