Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro has denied fleeing the country after landing in Miami, days after losing the presidential election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“I did not flee Brazil; I left for the sake of Brazil,” he said in his first statement since his departure, adding that it was never his intention to “leave my homeland”, the BBC reported.

The United States granted visas to Bolsonaro and his family after Brazil cancelled his passports as part of a criminal investigation. He denies any wrongdoing. US President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday: “We gave him a pass to come into the country.”

Lula, newly re-elected, criticised the secretive nature of the exit, saying “those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear”.

Bolsonaro’s arrival in Florida ended several days of confusion about his whereabouts. He had been reported to have travelled to Argentina, and was prematurely reported to have entered the United States on Tuesday. Speculation was first triggered by an Argentine news site, which said he had crossed the land border and boarded a private plane bound for the US. In Florida he has met his brother, Eduardo.

In a lengthy letter, Bolsonaro thanked the presidents of Argentina and the United States and called himself the victim of a coup d’etat and of political persecution, saying he had “departed from a regime of exception”. He also repeated unsubstantiated allegations of “electoral fraud”. Trump declined to engage with those claims, saying: “I won’t get involved. It was a very strange election, that’s for sure.”

Bolsonaro won the first round of the election, but Lula took the run-off by more than four million votes on significantly higher turnout. The result was confirmed by the president of Brazil’s top electoral court — an appointee of Bolsonaro’s father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Not reported

Neither filing states what the criminal investigation that led to the cancellation of his passports concerns, or how long he intends to remain in the United States.

Sources

Hiru News relayed the BBC’s reporting and, filing earlier in the day, said no statement had been issued by Bolsonaro. His statement was published subsequently.