Bolsonaro has requested asylum in Argentina, according to Brazilian police.
Brazilian police have found a draft of an asylum application addressed to Argentine President Javier Milei, in which the former Brazilian president claimed he was suffering political persecution.
BarcelonaWhen Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the house arrest of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Earlier that month, the Federal Police also ordered the seizure of Bolsonaro's cell phone. Among the documents found on the device, agents located a 2024 draft in which Bolsonaro requested political asylum from his far-right ally, Javier Milei, head of the Argentine government.
The Federal Police used this and other evidence to request judges on Wednesday that both Bolsonaro, confined in Brasilia, and his son Eduardo, a congressman residing in the United States, be prosecuted in an attempt to coerce the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the former president at the beginning.
The draft, last modified in February 2024, was found days after Moraes confiscated the former president's passport and coincides with a two-night stay at the Hungarian Embassy in Brasilia, a fact that led authorities to suspect that Bolsonaro. Following the publication of the police report, Brazil's Supreme Court gave Bolsonaro's defense team 48 hours to explain "the failure to comply with the precautionary measures, the reiteration of illicit conduct, and the proven existence of a flight risk."
The documents also reveal that Bolsonaro transferred more than $360,000 to his son for his stay in the United States, where they have both been for the past six months, and that he has visited the White House several times in recent months to pressure the United States to intervene in his father's case. According to Brazilian authorities, father and son have sought "inducing, instigating and assisting" the Donald Trump administration to carry out "hostile acts against Brazil" with the aim of "filing" the case for colpismo.
According to prosecutors, these actions are part of an attempt by Bolsonaro to influence the judicial process in which he is accused of leading a plot to prevent the inauguration of progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president in the 2022 presidential elections. But for its part, the Supreme Court ruled in early September.
Political analysts warn that the case not only has legal implications, but also diplomatic ones, since it involves foreign governments such as those of Argentina and Hungary, and could further strain Brazil's international relations.
The trial and the associated tensions have sparked a diplomatic conflict between Brazil and the United States. Trump called the legal proceedings a "witch hunt" and imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian products in question until the trial is halted. Lula, for his part, rejected the US pressure, calling it "unacceptable."
