MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday, after he refused to concede to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva then fled the country.

In a circuitous journey, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then traveled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator and his family arrived in Florida a day after the Trump administration granted them United States visas. Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. The court had ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

Bolsonaro lands in Miami

Argentina's migration authority said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. They entered via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a primary border checkpoint linking Brazil to Argentina’s northeastern province of Misiones.

“Those who did so possessed valid travel documentation and faced no legal impediments to entering the country,” the Argentine migration authority said on X. The four boarded a private charter flight operated by aviation company Baires Fly S.A. at 11:30 p.m. local time, the authority said. According to the filed flight plan, the aircraft departed for Guayaquil, Ecuador.

His route via Argentina is almost certain to cause a diplomatic rift between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to take part in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed a plane fitting the description of Bolsonaro’s landed in Guayaquil at about 4 a.m. local time, then took off minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport.

The plane carrying Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami at around 9:30 a.m. EDT.

Before they landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia that he didn't have precise information about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally who lives in the U.S., said in a short statement he couldn't confirm information from foreign authorities, but that “Flávio Bolsonaro is well, in security and resting with his family.”

Figueiredo said there would be a press conference Thursday in Miami to discuss the case.

Representatives of Brazil's government didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Trump rejects Brazilian election results

Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas on Tuesday. He did not elaborate, but stressed that he didn't endorse the election results.

Leaders all over the world and the Organization of American States endorsed the result and congratulated Lula, who was reelected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

On Tuesday, Milei's administration spokesman Adrián Ravier said “there is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add.”

Bolsonaro visited his father, who is under house arrest, before leaving Brazil

The defeated candidate was served with a Supreme Court order to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.

A Brazilian diplomat who was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly told The Associated Press that Bolsonaro used an Italian passport to enter Argentina and did not leave records in Brazilian check points, as they are not required to exit.

The diplomat said Brazil’s federal police were not monitoring Bolsonaro when he left his home in Brasilia as he did not have any warrant for arrest from the Supreme Court.

Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video Monday that he was attempting to organize opposition to the election results among his congressional colleagues. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027.

Brazil's Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In a separate case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

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Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

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