MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Eduardo Bolsonaro to seek political asylum in the US

Lula's allies claim it is a stunt ahead of the October 2026 presidential elections

Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, announced he would be taking a leave from Parliament and remaining in the United States where he intends to seek political asylum at the suggestion of his legal team, who advised him against returning to the country as his freedom could be endangered by whatever Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre De Moraes might decide. He traveled to the US on Feb. 27, 2025, initially for meetings and vacation.

Despite no formal charges against him —unlike his father, who faces coup-related allegations— Eduardo requested an unpaid leave from Parliament and plans to remain in the U.S. for at least six months on a tourist visa, seeking asylum under Donald Trump's administration after a group of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party asked De Moraes to seize his passport, which the magistrate did not oblige.

Eduardo frames his move as a mission to seek sanctions against De Moraes, whom he accuses of human rights violations and leading a “Gestapo-like” judiciary, particularly for convicting participants in the January 8, 2023, riots following Lula's inauguration. His father faces potential imprisonment for allegedly plotting a coup after the 2022 elections.

Jair Bolsonaro supported his son's “exile,” claiming it highlights Brazil's democratic decline. Eduardo also hints at a 2026 presidential run, aiming to ensure “clean” elections from abroad.

Eduardo Bolsonaro's entourage told local media that the lawmaker was campaigning within Congress for the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee to defend his father from prison.

On the other hand, Lula's allies claim it was a stunt pulled by Eduardo Bolsonaro to gain notoriety by “victimizing” himself ahead of the October 2026 presidential elections.

”I am temporarily abdicating my mandate and will go on unpaid leave. I want to dedicate myself entirely to seek sanctions against (De Moraes) a human rights violator,“ said Eduardo Bolsonaro in a video that went viral on social media, in which he also questioned the Federal Police, which carried out the investigations into the Jan. 8 case. He also described the STF judges as ”psychopaths,“ and insisted ”the solutions (for Brazil) will come from the United States, which will rescue our freedoms.”