Bolsonaro declares himself ‘Brazil’s leader’

Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has declared himself Brazil’s “leader” after losing the presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and arriving in Miami, United States.

In an open letter posted on X on Wednesday, Bolsonaro initially described himself as the country’s “elected president” before deleting the post and publishing a revised version in which he called himself Brazil’s “leader”.

“I want to say, not only to my 60 million voters but also to the Brazilian people, that I am the leader and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organisation that has established a tyranny,” he wrote.

Bolsonaro alleged that Lula and Brazil’s Supreme Court were responsible for electoral fraud but provided no evidence to support his claims. Brazil’s electoral authorities recognised Lula’s victory, while Bolsonaro’s party also acknowledged the result.

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The senator, who is the Liberal Party (PL) candidate in the recent October 2026 presidential election, alongside his family, arrived in Miami on Wednesday after travelling through Argentina and Ecuador. His departure followed a court order requiring him to surrender his passports in connection with a money-laundering investigation, in which he denied wrongdoing.

Bolsonaro rejected suggestions that he had fled Brazil, insisting that he left the country without abandoning his supporters.

“I want to make this clear: I did not flee Brazil,” he said. “I left Brazil, but I did not abandon the Brazilian people.”

He also thanked Argentine President Javier Milei and US President Donald Trump for their support.

Trump declined to get involved in Brazil’s post-election dispute, describing the election as “very strange”.