Flávio Bolsonaro, now in U.S., plans media tour to highlight Brazil’s political challenges

Conservative politician Flávio Bolsonaro, who strongly disputes that he lost Brazil’s Oct. 25 presidential runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is planning a media tour with major national and international news outlets, as he seeks to highlight corruption and political oppression in his native Brazil. Bolsonaro and his family fled to the U.S. after a Brazilian court ordered him to surrender his passports shortly after the controversial conclusion of the election.

“Those who wish to listen will hear what no one else is able to say while in Brazil,” Bolsonaro wrote in an Oct. 31 X post, promising interviews with “no cuts, no filters.”

Bolsonaro said Rede Globo, Brazil’s largest television news network, invited him for an exclusive interview and that he accepted on the condition that it air in full, without cuts or off-limits topics, but the network “chose not to proceed.” He said Globo’s weekly newsmagazine Fantástico would instead run an extensive report about him without allowing him the right to respond in their pages.

Bolsonaro’s announced media tour comes after a dramatic presidential runoff election in which Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin — who was previously Lula’s personal lawyer — bypassed the Electoral Court to pause voting and extend the voting window by two hours. The pause and extension came after complaints from the Lula campaign over public transportation issues. Zanin also granted an extension requested by the Bolsonaro campaign for areas in five states hit by flooding and other logistical challenges. 

A final tally from the Superior Electoral Court showed Lula winning the Oct. 25 presidential runoff with 64 million votes to Bolsonaro’s 60 million votes, as Zeale News previously reported.

On Oct. 27, Bolsonaro crossed into Argentina, then flew by private plane from Ecuador to Florida, landing near Miami on Oct. 28, Fox News reported. 

In an Oct. 28 open letter to the people of Brazil, Bolsonaro called the election stolen and pledged to “lead the opposition from here” [the United States]. Despite the presidential results, the Oct. 4 first round of voting resulted in Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party winning the largest bloc of seats in both Brazil’s Parliament and Senate. 

According to Bolsonaro, “just seven minutes after the election results were announced” a judicial order was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Around 12 hours later, federal police served Bolsonaro with the order as he was leaving his father Jair’s house. Jair Bolsonaro has been under house arrest since he lost the 2022 presidential election to Lula. The judicial order required the younger Bolsonaro to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports and barred him from leaving Brazil and from contacting lawyer Willer Tomaz.

Police explained that the restrictions in the order were in place because Bolsonaro was the “master user” of an account at Alcazar Holding, a Portuguese company run by Tomaz, and that Flavio’s brother Eduardo said in an Oct. 23 podcast that he would favor his brother leaving Brazil if he lost. Bolsonaro is under investigation for alleged money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion in two cases — the same charges brought against his father after the 2022 election loss. He denies all wrongdoing. 

The editorial board of The Washington Post wrote on Oct. 28 that “Bolsonaro’s claims of political persecution hit differently because of the extraordinary powers Brazil’s judiciary has amassed in recent years. Judges often act as investigators, prosecutors and adjudicators.” The Post cited Moraes’ 7-year crackdown on “fake news,” going so far as to ban X from Brazil in 2024 and directing Google and Apple to make it difficult for Brazilians to obtain virtual private network (VPN) access. People caught using a VPN were subject to a $9,000-a-day fine.   

“The flagrant attack on free speech,” the editorial board said, “put Brazil in a rogues’ gallery that includes China, Iran and Turkmenistan.”

Editors at the Post further warned that the judiciary using attacks on the rule of law to justify becoming untethered from the law risks a scenario in which “government officials [use] legal instruments to exercise power unconstrained by durable legal principles.”

A number of foreign nations have refused to honor extradition requests originating with Brazil’s Supreme Court, and in particular with officials linked to Moraes, citing concerns over politically motivated persecution. Italy’s Court of Cassation, for example, refused an extradition from Moraes earlier this year, citing the high potential for political weaponization of the Brazilian judge’s authority in the case.