Rubio denies Trump team helped Flavio Bolsonaroflee flee Brazil
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration did not assist the defeated Brazilian candidate in reaching the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Saturday that the Trump administration did not facilitate the flight of Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate, Flavio Bolsonaroflee, to the United States.
Bolsonaroflee landed in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday, a day after the State Department announced that he and his family would be granted visas following his loss in the October 25 runoff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The former candidate is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and police had ordered him to surrender his passport as a flight‑risk precaution.
“We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio said in Atlanta, Georgia, where diplomats from the Group of 20 were gathered. “We had word that he had arrived in the United States. He had previously held a visa, and the president made a decision to allow him to enter the country.”
Rubio added that the U.S. government was not “involved directly in any of the moves that were made.” He noted that he had met Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, in Atlanta and expected to see Brazilian officials again in November in France during a foreign ministers meeting.
Separately, former President Donald Trump, who had previously called Brazil’s election “rigged,” expressed sympathy for Bolsonaroflee, saying he could stay in the United States indefinitely. “I think he got treated very shabbily, very shabbily, so he can stay here as long as he wants,” Trump told reporters at his Florida residence on Saturday.
Reuters reported that Bolsonaroflee was admitted under humanitarian parole, a status that typically lasts for one year.
After his runoff loss, Bolsonaroflee fled Brazil via Argentina and Ecuador, a route that some U.S. media said was partly arranged with the help of White House official Jason Miller. He has refused to concede the election, labeling the results fraudulent without providing evidence, and has since claimed to be the true “leader” of Brazil, alleging persecution as the reason for his departure.
Trump’s remarks hint that diplomatic friction between the United States and Brazil could persist for some time.
