According to Argentine migration authorities, the 45-year-old senator arrived in Argentina on Tuesday night with "valid travel documents and no legal impediment", then quickly boarded a private Baires Fly S.A. flight from Puerto Iguazu to Guayaquil, Ecuador, with his wife and two daughters. The plane took off just after midnight Wednesday and landed in Guayaquil shortly before 4:00 am local time, then took off again less than an hour later, AFP journalists and Flightradar24 data confirmed. Its final destination is unknown, though FlightAware listed Miami as its heading. The flight is controversial because Brazil's Supreme Court had banned Bolsonaro from leaving the country and ordered him to surrender his passports amid investigations for alleged corruption and money laundering. With his runoff election loss to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday, he is also set to lose parliamentary immunity. A police source said his Brazilian and diplomatic passports were canceled, but he has held Italian nationality since 2023, which may have facilitated travel. The U.S. State Department said it would issue visas to the senator and his family, and U.S. media reported he had arrived in the United States on Tuesday. His departure shocked even his own camp. Campaign manager Rogerio Marinho said Tuesday they had no news of his whereabouts beyond a text message saying he would talk later. Bolsonaro had said on Instagram a day earlier that he "never had any intention of leaving the country", calling the exit ban a scare tactic. Lula, who won with 51.8% of the vote, called fleeing "shameful", saying "a person who sneaks out of their country must have something to hide". After his loss, Bolsonaro said he would seek to annul the result over extended polling hours due to transportation problems. Both he and Lula had requested extensions. His ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, called the election "rigged". Flavio Bolsonaro had led the first round earlier this month and campaigned on freeing his father, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest for coup-plotting after losing to Lula in 2022. (Bssnews)