Flávio Bolsonaro Leaves Brazil With a US Visa Promised and Senate Immunity Until February
Flávio Bolsonaro left Brazil on Tuesday, a day after the Supreme Court gave him 24 hours to surrender his passports, and Washington says it will issue him a visa. His Senate seat protects him from arrest until February. It has never protected him from prosecution.
Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil — CC BY 3.0 BR, via Wikimedia Commons
Flávio Bolsonaro, the Brazilian senator who lost Sunday’s presidential runoff, left Brazil on Tuesday 27 October, a day after the Supreme Court gave him 24 hours to surrender his passports in a money laundering investigation, and the US State Department says it will grant him and his family visas.
“The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” a senior official said, according to Reuters. President Trump said: “Well, I would approve. I think they’re fine people.” Where the family is now was not settled on Wednesday. Reuters reported that Argentina’s migration department said they entered Misiones province on Tuesday night through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, and boarded a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador, at 11:30 p.m. local time, according to the aircraft’s flight plan.
The Supreme Court ordered the seizure on Monday 26 October, citing his “significant financial resources” and the risk that he would leave the country, Reuters reported. He denies wrongdoing. Before he left he said: “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me,” and “I have never thought about leaving the country.” NBC News, citing two sources, reported that the passports were cancelled once the deadline lapsed. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the departure shameful.
What does a Brazilian senator’s immunity actually cover?
Speech and arrest, not prosecution. NBC described Mr Bolsonaro as a senator who “loses his immunity from prosecution when his Senate term ends in February.” The Constitution is narrower than that. Article 53 provides that deputies and senators “shall enjoy civil and criminal immunity for any of their opinions, words and votes.” For anything else, it changes the court and the conditions of arrest, not the liability.
The table is this publication’s summary of the four paragraphs of Article 53, from the English translation published by the Constitute Project.
| Provision | What it says | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Art. 53, caput | Immunity “for any of their opinions, words and votes” | Reach conduct other than opinions, words and votes |
| Art. 53, §1 | Members “shall be judged by the Supreme Federal Tribunal” from investiture | Bar a trial |
| Art. 53, §2 | No arrest “except in flagrante delicto for a non-bailable crime”; the chamber then votes on the imprisonment | Mention any measure short of arrest |
| Art. 53, §3 | The chamber may, by majority, “suspend the proceedings” for a crime committed after investiture | Operate without a vote of the chamber |
That is why the court’s order was about passports. Article 102 gives the Supreme Federal Tribunal jurisdiction over “charges of common criminal offenses against… members of the National Congress.” A sitting senator can be investigated and tried there. Outside the narrow exception in §2, he cannot be held. Taking his travel documents is a measure that stops short of arrest, and on Tuesday it was the measure that failed.
What changes in February?
The arrest protection and the guaranteed forum. Senators serve eight-year terms under Article 46, and Mr Bolsonaro’s ends in February, NBC reported. On the constitutional text, what changes then is not that he becomes prosecutable; it is that he becomes arrestable. Whether the money laundering investigation would stay with the Supreme Court once his term ends is a question the reporting this publication read does not address.
This publication set out on 26 October, in A Refusal Is Not a Petition, that he had reportedly refused to recognise Lula’s win by about 4.4 million votes and that the Constitution allows only a narrow, post-certification challenge. Leaving the country neither files that challenge nor withdraws it.
Does a US visa settle anything?
No. A visa is permission to seek entry, issued at the State Department’s discretion; it is not asylum, and it says nothing about extradition. No extradition request has been reported, and the court’s order, as Reuters described it, arose from an investigation rather than a charge. His brother Eduardo lives in Texas while subject to a Brazilian prison order, and this publication reported on 9 October that lawyers said the extradition treaty with the United States does not cover the crime in that case. Whether it would cover the money laundering under investigation in Flávio’s case has not been tested.
The visa, as Mr Trump described it, needed only his approval. The passport order needed a court. Only one of them was addressed to Mr Bolsonaro, and by Tuesday night he was outside the country that issued it.
Further reading
Nadia Belkacem is a house byline used by The 13th Bell’s World desk. This piece was checked against the sources listed below before an editor approved it. See How we use AI.
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