Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro left the country after losing the presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to Lula, while the senator’s whereabouts remained unclear in initial reports.
A senior US State Department official said the United States would issue visas to Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter. The official did not confirm whether Bolsonaro had already departed or was travelling to the United States.
The reported departure came after Bolsonaro was ordered to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports. The deadline expired at noon on Tuesday, a day after he was served with the order. Bolsonaro had said publicly that he did not intend to leave Brazil and would hand over his passports, while also disputing the election result.
Lula won 51.8 percent of the vote, defeating Bolsonaro by nearly 4.4 million votes, according to Brazil’s electoral court. Bolsonaro called for the result to be annulled and made fraud allegations that had not been substantiated. He has denied wrongdoing in investigations involving corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.
