US Gov't did not facilitate Bolsonaro’s flight to the US -- Rubio

ATLANTA (AP) — United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration did not facilitate the departure of defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro from his country.

Bolsonaro, who had the tacit support of US President Donald Trump during the election, left Brazil following his defeat to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

He is under investigation by Brazilian authorities for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion and was ordered to surrender his passport after police deemed him a flight risk.

Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Wednesday, a day after the US State Department said that he and his family will be granted American visas following his defeat in a hotly contested election that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.

“We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio told reporters in Atlanta, where top diplomats from the Group of 20 largest world economies 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 said, adding that the US government was “not involved directly in any of the moves that were made”.

Bolsonaro refused to acknowledge his defeat at the polls and has called the elections fraudulent, without providing evidence.

His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, also refused to acknowledge his 2022 loss to Lula and is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro, who is also a Senator from Rio de Janeiro, will lose his seat when Brazil’s new legislature begins on February 1.

He repeated his claim that he is a victim of persecution in a livestream on Instagram Friday.

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