Flávio Bolsonaro, the Washington stooge who lost the Brazilian presidential election run-off Oct. 25 by 4 million votes, fled Brazil on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 27, claiming massive vote fraud, and pronounced himself “president-elect” of Brazil within hours of arriving in the U.S. early Wednesday morning.
Bolsonaro began his proclamation with effusive thanks to President Javier Milei of Argentina, for help in his flight, and President Trump, for welcoming him in the U.S. Trump, late Tuesday night, told reporters that he approved of Flávio’s coming to the U.S. “The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible. It’s gotten bad reviews. You look at what happened to their market.” Trump was referring to a precipitous fall in the Brazilian stock market the day after the election, as investors scrambled to cover huge bets that Bolsonaro would win. The financial oligarchy in Brazil, Wall Street, and London made a down payment on financial warfare they are prepared to unleash to make the come-back victor in the elections, Lula da Silva, unable to govern.
However, Trump, who had said the day before that he got along well with Lula, was careful not to condemn Lula in his further remarks.
The central allegation which Bolsonaro is using to claim vote fraud, is that some polling stations were allowed to stay open two extra hours to accommodate voters delayed by torrential rains. The allegation is ludicrous—only 34,000 votes were recorded in the extra time, while Lula trounced Bolsonaro by more than 4 million votes.
The absurdity of the charge did not restrain Bannonite elements in Trump’s MAGA base from decrying “Lula’s Totalitarian Crackdown: Brazil on the Brink of a Political Crisis,” with pictures of a U.S. flag being burned in a Brazilian demonstration.
The jet which carried Bolsonaro from Argentina, where he had initially fled, to the U.S., is owned “by a company cited in a corruption scheme that brought down an ally of Milei,” according to the Brazilian daily Folha.
Bolsonaro was facing two major criminal investigations in Brazil: one, for money laundering for betting syndicates in Rio, with a close lawyer buddy of his, Willi Tomaz; the other, for millions of dollars he had obtained from the “Epstein of Brazil,” disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro, to fund a film extolling his father, Jair Bolsonaro, currently serving a 27-year sentence for sponsoring a coup attempt in early 2023.
The leadership of Bolsonaro’s party, the Liberal Party (PL), have acknowledged the legitimacy of the election results, as have a raft of Bolsonaro’s top allies in other parties, and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), headed by a Bolsonaro ally.
Flávio’s bolt to the U.S., and assertion that he is “president-elect,” put these Bolsonarista forces in a bind: Do they back up their standard-bearer, and now repudiate the legitimacy of the elections they’ve just acknowledged—or do they cut him loose, and leave their forces in disarray?
Flávio’s U.S. proclamation didn’t make it easier for them. The initial release sported a Brazilian national seal at the top which was replaced 60 years ago. The self-designation as “president-elect” obviously also created big problems. The initial release was almost immediately deleted and a second one issued, with the corrected seal at the top and Flávio declaring himself “leader of Brazil,” rather than “president-elect.”
In both versions of his proclamation, he compared himself to Charles de Gaulle leading the Free French from London, and José Martí, organizing Cuban independence from New York.
Even one of the major anti-Lula “mainstream” press outlets, Estadão, headlined Flávio’s statement, “After fleeing, Flávio declares himself ‘president-elect’ in a coup-mongering letter and thanks Trump and Milei. The TSE, the PL, and the running mate on the defeated ticket have recognized Lula’s victory.”
Lula’s response was sharp, though he also urged his supporters not to take their attention off the work of developing the programs for his fourth term: “A shameful act. That’s what the Bolsonaro family is all about—kissing up to the U.S.”
Many Brazilians remember that when Lula faced criminal charges in 2018 (the “Lava Jato” judicial witch hunt against him), he did not flee, but served 580 days in prison, before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction on grounds of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.
