Itamaraty summoned, on Thursday (29), the Argentine embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Brazil, María Emilia Cortés, to request clarification about the possible involvement of the government of Javier Milei in the departure of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) to the United States. The senator, his wife, and their two daughters boarded a private plane on Argentine soil on Tuesday night (27).
Cortés was received in Brasília by Ambassador João Marcelo Galvão de Queiroz, director of the Department of South America at Itamaraty. The procedure is standard practice when one government wishes to register its displeasure with actions of another country.
The diplomat has led the Argentine representation since August, when the Lula government (PT) downgraded bilateral relations to the level of chargé d’affaires and removed ambassador Guillermo Daniel Raimondi from his post. The decision came after Milei called President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “thief” and a “prisoner” during the PL convention that formalized Flávio’s candidacy for the presidency, in July.
Flávio, defeated by Lula in the runoff held on Sunday (25), entered Argentina via the Foz do Iguaçu border (PR) at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the neighboring country’s National Immigration Directorate. Forty minutes later, the family boarded a charter flight by the company Baires Fly, which stopped in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and landed in Miami on Wednesday morning (28).
The trip occurred after Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered the surrender of the senator’s passports, at the request of the Federal Police (PF), which pointed to a risk of flight.
Buenos Aires presented divergent versions throughout the episode. On Tuesday, Milei’s spokesperson, Fabián Fernández, denied to Bloomberg that Flávio had entered the country, and the migratory authority reported that there was no record of entry. By early Wednesday, the same agency confirmed the family’s passage through Argentina and their boarding for the United States.
