MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: opposition asks Milei to clarify whether Bolsonaro left Brazil through the country

Milei backed Bolsonaro during the campaign and repeatedly called Lula a “thief” and a “jailbird”

Argentine opposition lawmakers on Tuesday demanded that Javier Milei’s government report whether Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who left Brazil despite a court ban and travelled to the United States after his election defeat, crossed through Argentine territory. The National Migration Directorate said it has no record of the senator entering the country.

“There is no record of any entry by Flávio Bolsonaro into the Argentine Republic,” the agency said in a statement. It explained that after press reports of a private plane at Puerto Iguazú airport, in the Triple Frontier area with Brazil and Paraguay, it inspected the aircraft and its crew and “found that the company’s paperwork is in order and no flight plan including the Bolsonaro family was submitted”. Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier said there had been “no request for asylum”. The route by which Bolsonaro left Brazil has not been officially confirmed.

Peronist Senator Juliana Di Tullio said the government, through Interior Minister Diego Santilli, “must explain whether Bolsonaro used our border and our territory to escape from Brazil”. Left Front deputy Myriam Bregman called on the authorities to clarify “whether Bolsonaro, Milei’s fugitive friend, passed through Argentina”. Socialist deputy Esteban Paulón filed a formal request for information in the Chamber of Deputies asking the executive to state whether there are records of the senator’s entry or exit and whether the country received notice of the court restrictions placed on him.

Milei backed Bolsonaro during the campaign and repeatedly called Lula a “thief” and a “jailbird”, prompting Brazil to recall its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations in July. The Argentine government has not congratulated the Brazilian president on his re-election and, according to El País, confirmed it will issue no official statement on the result.

The case revives a precedent that has already strained bilateral relations: in recent years, dozens of people charged or convicted over the January 8, 2023 storming of the seats of the three branches of government in Brasília have settled in Argentina, according to media in both countries.