The United States has said it will issue a visa to Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, according to the BBC. The announcement came as Brazilian authorities questioned his whereabouts, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
The development follows reports that Flávio Bolsonaro left Brazil after a presidential election loss. The Guardian reported that he fled the country, while the Financial Times reported that his passport had been cancelled as those reports circulated.
According to the BBC, Brazilian police said they cancelled Bolsonaro's passports after he did not comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over the documents. The New York Times reported that the Supreme Court had ordered him to surrender his passports in connection with a money laundering inquiry.
Sky News reported that the US state department said Bolsonaro and his family would be granted visas following the election loss.
Why it matters
The case places a Brazilian legal dispute and a US immigration decision side by side. Brazil's Supreme Court sought Bolsonaro's travel documents as part of an inquiry, and the police moved to cancel those documents when they were not handed over, according to the BBC. At the same time, Washington has signalled it will admit him.
The episode also draws in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who commented publicly on Bolsonaro's departure. Lula said he regretted that Bolsonaro had left Brazil, arguing that he could have remained in the country and shown that the accusations against him were unfounded, according to the BBC.
Lula criticises Bolsonaro's departure
Lula said he had tried to get Bolsonaro to demonstrate his honesty by supplying paperwork to the electoral court, the BBC reported. He said Bolsonaro did not provide the documents, and described this as evidence that Bolsonaro is the biggest liar he has encountered.
The Brazilian president also compared the situation with his own experience. Lula said that when he was asked to surrender his passport, he complied. According to the BBC, a court requested his passport after he lost an appeal against corruption charges and faced a legal battle connected to bribery in 2018.
Lula said Bolsonaro should have done the same. He added that Brazil is Bolsonaro's second homeland, while his first is flattering the United States.
Passports cancelled after court order
The police account, as reported by the BBC, is that Bolsonaro's passports were cancelled because he failed to follow the Supreme Court's instruction to surrender them. The New York Times reported that the order to hand over the passports was issued within a money laundering inquiry.
The sequence of events has left Brazilian authorities asking where Bolsonaro is, the BBC reported. Reports that he had left the country circulated before the US said it would issue him a visa.
The US position was set out by the state department, according to Sky News, which reported that visas would be granted to Bolsonaro and his family after the election loss.
What happens next depends on whether Bolsonaro travels to the United States and how Brazilian courts and police pursue the passport order and the inquiry.
