Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro's transit through Argentina has put President Javier Milei's government under scrutiny after Brazil's Federal Police said a court barred him from leaving Brazil; the Buenos Aires Times reported pressure for answers.
Bolsonaro lost the Oct. 25 runoff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then traveled through Argentina and Ecuador toward the United States. Argentina's National Migration Directorate said no domestic restriction prevented Bolsonaro, his wife or their two daughters from entering, and that each presented travel documents accepted by border officials.
The directorate said the family boarded a Baires Fly SA private aircraft in Puerto Iguazú bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador. Flight-tracking data shows takeoff at 11:21 p.m. ET Oct. 27 (3:21 UTC Oct. 28).
Argentina's Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli defended the trip on Oct. 29, saying Bolsonaro had no Interpol restriction and continued to Guayaquil. “He entered with the proper documents, in order, and left by plane under the same conditions,” Santilli said.
Brazil's Federal Police (PF) said it asked the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Oct. 25 for a travel ban and passport measures, citing concern Bolsonaro might leave Brazil. The agency said his Brazilian passports had been canceled. It also said an Oct. 26 order required him to surrender any foreign passports within 24 hours, but he did not comply; police said Brazilian migration checkpoints had no official departure record for him. The STF docket is confidential, and the full order is not public.
El Liberal reported that a prosecutor in Puerto Iguazú dismissed a complaint over the border crossing after migration records and an Interpol response showed no active restriction or arrest request. Infobae reported that a review prosecutor still had to decide whether to close the complaint or seek more evidence, leaving its status disputed in published accounts.
Separately, TN and Infobae reported that Federal Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti requested security-camera footage from Puerto Iguazú airport and information on whether Argentine agencies received official alerts from Brazil. The preliminary requests do not establish that officials knew of the Brazilian order or arranged the trip. Clarín alone reported that presidential adviser Santiago Caputo helped coordinate it; the Milei government did not comment on the allegation. Bolsonaro later thanked Milei publicly, but his statement does not show that the president took part in arranging the journey.
