It wasn’t a direct flight:

Sources earlier confirmed to CNN that Bolsonaro had left Brazil for the US after losing Sunday’s presidential election runoff against leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazil’s Federal Police canceled Bolsonaro’s passports after he failed to surrender them, affiliate CNN Brasil reported.

Speculation about his movements mounted after Argentine news outlet Infobae reported that Bolsonaro, a Trump-aligned candidate, had left Brazil via Argentina. The Argentine government initially said in a statement that it has “no record of Flávio Bolsonaro entering” the country.

But early Wednesday morning Argentinian time, the country’s immigration ministry said in a post to X that Bolsonaro and his family had entered Argentina from Brazil late Tuesday local time, and shortly after had boarded a flight to Guayaquil in Ecuador, according to its flight plan.

It added they had entered Argentina with “valid documentation” and without any “legal impediment.”

And now he’s landed in Miami with his wife and two daughters. The article also points out:

In leaving Brazil for the US, Bolsonaro joins a large community of Brazilian conservatives in exile — including his own brother Eduardo, former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem and podcaster Paulo Figueiredo.

And you can bet more are following, if they can manage to do so.

Flavio is the son of Jair, a previous president of Brazil and rival of Lula. Jair’s history is instructive. Among other things, it features a J6 semi-equivalent that was used by Lula to successfully do to Jair what the left previously attempted and failed to do to Trump – and still fantasizes doing to him.

Here’s some of the story of how Jair ended up with a 27-year prison sentence (although he’s under house arrest now for health reasons). He lost an election to Lula and then:

On 30 December 2022, one day before the end of his term, Bolsonaro arrived in the US state of Florida and resided in Kissimmee for several months. On 8 January 2023, his supporters attacked the buildings of the Supreme Court of Brazil, the National Congress, and the Planalto Presidential Palace to instigate a military coup d’état and reinstate Bolsonaro as president. While the riots were going on, President Lula blamed Bolsonaro in a press conference. Bolsonaro condemned the protesters in a Twitter post on 9 January, and denied responsibility.

In February 2023, Bolsonaro announced that he would return to Brazil in March. This would be the first time Bolsonaro had returned since December 2022. Bolsonaro had entered the United States on a diplomatic visa, which expired on 31 January, but the family applied for tourist visas to extend their stay in Florida.

Bolsonaro returned to Brazil in March 2023 for the first time since his supporters stormed the Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential palace two months before. Bolsonaro stated that he returned to the country to help his party and intended to campaign for the 2024 elections. On 14 April 2023, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro to submit himself for questioning with the Federal Police over the storming of the Congress. …

On 30 June 2023, the Superior Electoral Court barred Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030 as a result of his attempts to undermine the validity of Brazil’s 2022 democratic election, as well as for abuse of power with regard to using government channels to promote his campaign. … He was prosecuted on several fraud charges in the 2022 elections and events linked to the 8 January attack on federal government buildings. The decision came after a 5–2 vote in favour of conviction. …

In November 2024 he and 36 others were formally charged with plotting a coup d’état, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and criminal organisation. In February 2025 Bolsonaro and 33 others were formally charged with plotting to assassinate Lula da Silva and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. …

On 11 September 2025, the Supreme Federal Court sentenced Bolsonaro to 27 years and 3 months in prison over the coup plot.

Also, it was the same judge, Moraes, who had ruled against the father who recently ruled against the son:

Flavio Bolsonaro lost the October 25 runoff to [Lula] by more than 4.4 million votes — 48.2% to Lula’s 51.8% — yet federal police stopped him in the street the next morning and stripped him of all three passports on the order of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Moraes — whose wife’s law firm is at the center of a leaked R$131 million contract with jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro, with metadata showing Moraes himself edited the final draft — had previously been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Act in July 2025, though those sanctions were lifted in December of that year.

As for the judge who extended the voting hours in the first place, which apparently helped Lula pull out the win against Flavio:

He gained notoriety as a personal attorney of [Lula] in lawsuits related to Operation Car Wash.

On 1 June 2023, Zanin was appointed by president Lula da Silva as Justice of the Supreme Federal Court, replacing retired Justice Ricardo Lewandowski.

Not too suspicious, right?