Flavio Bolsonaro reaches US after court passport order

Flavio Bolsonaro reached the United States after leaving Brazil via Argentina and Ecuador, despite Brazil's Supreme Court ordering him to surrender his passports after his presidential election defeat.

The 45-year-old senator, son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, lost Sunday's election to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He refused to recognize the result and promised to seek an annulment.

On Monday, Bolsonaro posted a video saying the Supreme Court had banned him from leaving Brazil. He said he had never intended to leave the country and would surrender his passports.

On Tuesday, journalists including AFP saw Bolsonaro's official motorcade leave his Brasilia residence, but it was not initially clear whether he was inside. Local media later reported that the motorcade dispersed, and the driver of the middle vehicle showed no one was on board.

A police source confirmed to AFP that Bolsonaro's Brazilian and diplomatic passports had been cancelled. His campaign manager, Rogerio Marinho, told reporters in Brasilia that he did not know where Bolsonaro was.

Argentine immigration authorities said Bolsonaro entered Argentina at 0150 GMT on Wednesday through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge linking Foz do Iguacu in Brazil with Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. They said he entered with valid travel documents and no legal impediment.

It remains unclear how Bolsonaro travelled from Brasilia to the border, more than 1,500 kilometers away.

Argentine immigration authorities said a private jet then took Bolsonaro and his family to Guayaquil, Ecuador. AFP reporters saw the aircraft take off again, and flight-tracking data showed it heading to Miami.

Around 12 hours after leaving Argentina, Bolsonaro arrived at Florida's Opa-Locka airport with his wife and two daughters, AFP observed. A vehicle then carried the family away from the airport.