Argentina's National Directorate of Migration (DNM), the federal agency in charge of border control, said on Tuesday the 27th that there is no record of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro entering the country. The official denial came after the Argentine news site Infobae reported that the senator had crossed the land border using his national ID card and would board a private jet to the United States, fueling rumors that he had fled Brazil two days after losing the presidential election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The case carries regional weight because it touches two governments already on cold terms. A spokesman for President Javier Milei denied to the US news agency Bloomberg that Flavio Bolsonaro had entered Argentina, and the Casa Rosada, the Argentine presidential palace, told BBC News Brasil it had received no asylum request in his name. Milei, an ideological ally of the Bolsonaro family, is so far the only South American president who has not congratulated Lula on Sunday's victory, which made any confirmation that the senator was on Argentine soil politically sensitive.
For Brazil, the core issue is compliance with a court order. Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, ruled on Sunday that the senator must surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country, in a case in which Flavio Bolsonaro and lawyer Willer Tomaz are investigated for money laundering in an alleged scheme involving Tomaz's companies and betting firms. The Federal Police (PF) is checking whether the senator left anyway and has contacted Argentine authorities. According to journalist Andreia Sadi's blog, PF sources in Foz do Iguacu, on the border, said there was no record of him crossing.
The jet grounded in Puerto Iguazu
According to Infobae, the senator would travel on from Puerto Iguazu, in Argentina's Misiones province, aboard a Gulfstream G400 jet, registration LV-JQW, operated by the air taxi company Baires Fly. The tracking site FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft flew from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu and landed at 11:45 p.m. on Monday the 26th, Brasilia time, and had not left since. The newspaper La Nacion, citing sources in the Airport Security Police, reported that the planned overnight departure did not happen because one of the four expected passengers was missing.
In a statement, the DNM said it opened inspection procedures on the aircraft and its crew and that "no flight plan was filed that included members of the Bolsonaro family". G1 contacted Milei's office, the Argentine Foreign Ministry and Baires Fly, but had received no response by the time its report was last updated.
Passports not surrendered
The 24-hour deadline set by Moraes for handing over the passports expired on Tuesday without compliance. A source heard by BBC News Brasil said the Federal Police will report the breach to the justice and that the senator's Brazilian passports, including the official one he holds as a lawmaker, have been cancelled. In June 2025, Italy confirmed that Flavio Bolsonaro also holds an Italian passport, which the same order required him to surrender.
In a video posted on social media on Monday, the senator denied intending to leave the country and said he was served by the Federal Police as he left the home of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest. "I never said that. Is that a reason to take my passport?", he said, referring to a statement attributed to his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro that reportedly grounded Moraes's decision. The senator's campaign also denied he had left Brazil. So far there is no confirmation that he crossed the border, and his whereabouts have not been publicly clarified.