Brazil Cancels Flávio Bolsonaro's Passports Amid Reports of Flight to US

Flávio Bolsonaro's defeat in Brazil's presidential election on October 25 was followed by restrictions on his travel and questions about his whereabouts. Euronews reported that, in a video posted on Monday, October 26, he said he had been banned from leaving Brazil and ordered to surrender his passports.

The passport order was part of a money laundering investigation in which Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing, according to AP. The senator's failure to hand over the documents prompted Brazil to cancel them on Tuesday.

By Tuesday, October 27, Bolsonaro had not been seen since Monday and had missed a Tuesday morning deadline to surrender his passport, The Guardian reported. His absence fuelled reports that he might already have left Brazil.

Brazilian police opened an investigation on October 27 to establish whether he had travelled through Argentina to reach the United States, according to ABC. That was an investigation into a possible departure, not confirmation that he had crossed the border.

Attention focused on Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. La Nacion reported that a Baires Fly Gulfstream G400 was being held at the airport amid suspicions that Bolsonaro intended to board it for the United States.

Infobae reported that a Brazilian pilot told Folha de San Pablo that Bolsonaro's name appeared on the passenger list of an executive jet parked at Puerto Iguazú airport. That account did not establish that he had boarded the aircraft.

Argentina's government denied that Bolsonaro had crossed into the country, according to El Cronista. His staff also denied the reported escape plan, ANSA reported.

Bolsonaro's passports have been cancelled, but his whereabouts remain unknown, according to AP. The confirmed action against his travel documents is separate from the still unverified reports of a journey through Argentina.

The Argentine position is also narrower than a refusal to admit him: the government denied that he had entered the country, El Cronista reported. That denial conflicts with accounts suggesting he had already crossed the border.

The central question for the police investigation is whether Bolsonaro actually left Brazil, and whether the aircraft in Puerto Iguazú was connected to an attempted journey, as described by ABC and La Nacion. Establishing his location would help resolve the competing accounts.