CNN Brasil revealed that right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, left Brazil in an operation involving a former agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Former agent arrived in Brazil two weeks earlier
CNN Brasil said CCTV footage showed that a former Israeli intelligence official who had worked for Mossad arrived in Brazil on October 19 and accompanied Bolsonaro to Argentina. Bolsonaro crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge in the south of the country by land with his wife and two daughters. In the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú, the family then boarded a private Gulfstream G400 aircraft.
The report called the escape operation “Operation Alba,” saying it had been planned before the end of the election campaign and involved two minibuses and a private aircraft.
Trump: He can stay as long as he wishes
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that Bolsonaro had been “treated very badly,” adding: “That’s why he can stay here as long as he wishes.” Trump described the Brazilian election as a “total disgrace” but did not directly answer a question about whether he had met the Brazilian senator.
Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, faces investigations into corruption and money laundering. Authorities had decided to seize his passport before he secretly left the country. President Lula described his departure despite the travel ban as “shameful.”