UPDATE 2 - Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate arrives in US
- Flavio Bolsonaro arrives in Miami after losing Sunday’s election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
ADDS REMARKS FROM TRUMP
By Berk Kutay Gokmen and Diyar Guldogan
ISTANBUL (AA) - Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Wednesday from Ecuador, despite a court order requiring him to surrender his passports as part of a corruption and money laundering investigation, according to US media reports.
Bolsonaro lost Sunday’s election to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Within two days, questions about his whereabouts began circulating.
The son of former President Jair Bolsonaro is under investigation for his alleged links to a banker accused of financial misconduct and a man suspected of money laundering.
On Tuesday morning, Bolsonaro missed the Brazilian Supreme Court’s deadline to hand over his passports.
A senior State Department official confirmed that Bolsonaro and his family had been granted visas to enter the US.
Flight-tracking services showed that the Gulfstream jet carrying Bolsonaro left Guayaquil, Ecuador and landed at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, a joint civil-military facility.
Argentina’s National Directorate of Migration said Bolsonaro, his wife, Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and their daughters, Carolina and Luiza, entered Argentina through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge in Misiones province on Oct. 27.
The agency said the family presented valid travel documents and faced no legal impediments to entry, adding that the family then boarded a private flight operated by Baires Fly S.A. with Guayaquil, Ecuador listed as the destination in the flight plan.
President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve Bolsonaro coming to the US, while continuing to criticize Brazil’s presidential election.
Later, Trump said the US gave Bolsonaro a pass to come into the country.
"So we'll see — but I won't get involved," he said, adding it was a "very strange election."
"I thought they were treated very unfairly, and I didn't take a position in the election, as you know. But when I see something that's inappropriate, I bring it up," Trump told reporters as he departed for Ohio for a rally.
The Brazilian Federal Police canceled Bolsonaro’s regular and diplomatic passports Tuesday after he failed to comply with an order to surrender them.
The restrictions stem from an investigation into suspected money laundering and currency evasion involving financial transactions linked to an associate of Bolsonaro.
The senator, who denies any wrongdoing, insisted Monday that he had no intention of leaving the country.
Diyar Güldoğan,Berk Kutay Gökmen