On Monday, I said the situation in Brazil — following an almost certainly rigged runoff election in which the little dictator Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pulled off a shocking "win" — was only going to get crazier, and, well, we're watching that happen in real time.
To recap, the country held elections earlier this month, and it looked like it was going to be a decent win for the right. Lula, who was running for his fourth term, got fewer votes than his main opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, and, down the ballot, there were many surprising wins for the right and even other members of the Bolsonaro family.
But neither candidate reached the 50% of the vote needed to secure the position, so runoffs were held this past Sunday. Somehow, Lula managed to win with around 4.4 million more votes than Bolsonaro. The numbers themselves were fishy, but they came after a member of Brazil's highly corrupt Supreme Court ordered voting stations to stay open an extra two hours, moments after some of them had already closed and couldn't reopen. The particular member of the court who made this call was also Lula's personal defense attorney back during his own corruption trial.
Bolsonaro refused to give up, but on Monday, while visiting his father, Jair (the former Brazilian president whom Lula accused of plotting a coup and who is currently under house arrest due to health issues), he said federal police stopped him and told him he had 24 hours to turn over his passports. The order came directly from Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the court's most corrupt member, who has a habit of human rights abuses and jailing political opponents (see: why Jair Bolsonaro is under house arrest) and is currently sanctioned by the United States.
Moraes says it has to do with a money-laundering case, but everyone knows it's more of the same old leftist corruption. Initially, Flávio said he would cooperate, but news broke on Tuesday afternoon that he (and possibly other members of his family) was on a plane headed to the United States to seek asylum.
If a country is holding free and fair elections, most of the time the loser doesn't have to GTFO within 48 hours after the polls close. Just saying...
Flávio, who was initially going to challenge the election results and call for an annulment, had backed off from that kind of language by Monday evening and said he would fight other legal battles related to the results. His own party also formally recognized the results, though with some questions. Even so, once the 24-hour deadline came and went, Brazilian authorities canceled his passports. His whereabouts were, at that point, unknown.
According to Spanish reporter David Alandete, "The White House confirms to ABC that the United States will grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them to enter U.S. territory." Here's more:
The State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and has authorized their entry into the United States, a White House official spokesperson assures.
The statement constitutes an explicit confirmation that Washington has facilitated the entry of the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his relatives. It does not specify when they entered, what type of visas they will receive, or how long they will be allowed to remain in the country.
While Donald Trump and Marco Rubio never formally endorsed the younger Bolsonaro during the Brazilian election cycle, it was quite clear who they supported. Flávio visited Trump earlier this year and asked Rubio to designate Brazil's top criminal groups as terrorist organizations. Trump and Jair have also been good friends for years.
We'll see what happens next.
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