Brazil has summoned Argentina’s chargé d’affaires in Brasilia to demand clarification over the Argentine government’s involvement in Flavio Bolsonaro’s escape to the United States.

Bolsonaro fled first to Argentina, then to the United States, after losing Sunday’s presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

He arrived in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday aboard a private plane that departed from Argentina and made a stopover in Ecuador.

Maria Emilia Cortes was summoned to the Itamaraty Palace by Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday for clarification on the Argentine government’s role in Bolsonaro’s flight to the US.

She was received at the Foreign Ministry by João Marcelo Galvão de Queiroz, head of the ministry’s Mercosur Department.

The Brazilian diplomat conveyed Brasília’s displeasure with the actions of the Argentine government.

Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, however, has denied on social media that his government received a formal request for explanations regarding Bolsonaro’s decision to flee into Argentina late on Tuesday.

Lula wins Brazil runoff, faces political challenges, US pressure

Brazil’s Lula secures a fourth term over Flávio Bolsonaro, as he hails his victory as a defeat for lies.

After Sunday’s election, Bolsonaro was given a deadline to surrender his passports. Officials ordered him to remain in the country as part of a legal case.

He is part of an ongoing investigation into a money-laundering scheme, known as the Banco Master scandal.

A senator since 2019, Bolsonaro ran this year as the right-wing presidential candidate for his father’s political movement, the Liberal Party.

But after advancing to the run-off, the senator fell short by more than 4 million votes. Lula won Sunday’s race with 51.8 percent of the vote, securing a historic fourth non-consecutive term.

Bolsonaro, however, has refused to concede, though the Liberal Party has acknowledged Lula’s victory.

Instead, he made an unsubstantiated allegation of electoral malfeasance, pointing to a Supreme Court decision to extend voting hours on Sunday.

After arriving in Miami on Wednesday, he declared himself the “legitimate president-elect” of Brazil.

US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei have been openly supportive of the Bolsonaro family.

Trump, too, has claimed that Sunday’s election was “rigged.”

The US president has previously issued sanctions and tariffs in response to the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, after the former Brazilian president denied his defeat in the 2022 election. He was convicted in 2024 of plotting a coup to prevent Lula from taking power and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Relations between Lula and Milei have also been strained since the Argentinian leader took office in 2023. Milei has repeatedly criticized Lula.

The circumstances surrounding Bolsonaro’s departure threaten to further strain relations between Lula and his Argentinian counterpart.

The Lula administration has been forced to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Argentina to the level of chargé d’affaires following Milei’s repeated attacks against Lula.