Flávio Bolsonaro Flees Brazil, Welcomed by Trump with Open Arms

On October 25, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva made a historic comeback in Brazil’s runoff presidential elections, edging out his far-right opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro. Three days later, Flávio landed in Miami with the blessing of his ally, Donald Trump.

Flávio fled the country despite a Supreme Court order requiring him to surrender his passports while he is under investigation for corruption and money laundering. He crossed into Argentina at night, a move orchestrated by far-right president of Argentina, Javier Milei, before flying to the U.S. via Ecuador. 

From Florida, he is now calling himself Brazil’s “true elected president,” after asking for Sunday’s results to be annulled. Trump, for his part, has also called the Brazilian election “terrible” and “rigged,” and granted visas to Flávio and his family. The contrast is stark: while Trump criminalizes migrants, militarizes the border, and sends ICE to terrorize communities across the United States, he welcomes right-wing leaders with open arms. 

We’ve seen this playbook before. The United States has repeatedly supported coup plotters and sheltered right-wing leaders like Flávio’s father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, after his 2022 defeat. These moves are part of the country’s long history of undermining the sovereignty of the peoples of Latin America, and protecting the Right and those who support U.S. imperialism’s interests. 

And these moves are consistent with Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine”: his policies to subjugate Latin America to U.S. imperialism as part of the strategic competition with China amid declining U.S. hegemony. Flávio Bolsonaro, like other right-wing leaders in the region including Milei, José Antonio Kast in Chile, and Nasry Asfura in Honduras, help do Trump’s bidding in the region, attacking workers and opening their countries to international capital. In this context, Flávio’s loss in the second round was also a blow to Trump and the global Far Right. 

This is why the fight against the Far Right must be international: just as reactionary leaders worldwide are united in their anti-worker, pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist policies, the working class, too, must unite internationally. Together, fighting with one fist, we have the power to beat back the Far Right. After all, Flávio’s loss on Sunday came on the backs of massive mobilizations against the Right and U.S. imperialist meddling in the elections. 

As Diana Assunção, national leader of our sister group the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement (MRT), put it, “The defeat of Flávio Bolsonaro expresses the strength of workers and youth when they mobilize in our country… This mobilization needs to transform into an independent struggle, using the methods of the working class, with work stoppages and strikes, against the interests of the bosses, the right wing, and the entire Trumpist far-right, which continues to have strong representation in the political regime and a social base.”

Only by organizing independently and from below — and rejecting the class collaboration from leaders like Lula and his Workers’ Party — can we truly beat the Far Right. 

We reject Trump’s protection of the Bolsonaro family, and all U.S. intervention in Brazil. Hands off Brazil! No asylum for Flávio!