Defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family land in Miami after fleeing Brazil

MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday after he refused to concede the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and 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 Argentine officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May, and the Trump administration approved U.S. visas for him and his family this week.

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 ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro issued his first comments on his flight in a statement on X, in which he called himself the victim of electoral fraud and political persecution, and again asked for the annulment of the Lula–Alckmin ticket.

“I want to tell not only my 60 million voters but also the Brazilian people as a whole that I am the president-elect, and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organization that has established a tyranny,” he said. In a later version of the letter, Bolsonaro swapped the term “president-elect” for “leader.”

Dressed casually in a dark polo shirt and flanked by his wife and two daughters, Bolsonaro stepped out of the plane shortly after it landed in Miami at about 9:30 a.m. EDT. Florida is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the U.S.

The family fled Brazil late Tuesday, entered Argentina via a border checkpoint and quickly boarded a private charter plane, Argentine immigration officials said.

Flightradar24 showed the plane believed to be carrying Bolsonaro landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, about 4 a.m. local time, then took off minutes later for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

Before the family landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.

“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.”

Bolsonaro’s route through Argentina could deepen diplomatic tensions between Lula’s government and Argentine President Javier Milei, another Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to assist in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Milei has not commented directly about Bolsonaro's defeat, but Juan Pablo Carreira, a presidential spokesperson, said on social media that Milei's administration rescued Bolsonaro “from the claws of communism, which seeks to imprison all opposition figures.”

Representatives of Brazil's government have not responded to requests for comment.

Trump has said Bolsonaro is welcome in 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, on Tuesday. Earlier, Trump also said, without evidence, that the election was “rigged.”

When asked about Bolsonaro’s assertion on Wednesday that he was the “rightful president-elect of Brazil” — a term the defeated candidate later softened to “leader of Brazil” — the U.S. president said he would not comment. Instead, Trump said he has given Bolsonaro a “pass” to come into the country.

“I won’t get involved,” Trump said, before repeating his claim that the election was “very strange."

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

The U.S. has imposed double-digit sanctions on Brazil, which boasts Latin America’s largest economy. Lula has championed Brazil’s long tradition of nonalignment, cultivating ties with competing powers. His government has deepened trade ties with China and sought greater global influence through BRICS, a group of emerging economies.

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the defeated candidate to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received the order outside the home where his father is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for his attempted 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 that Brazilians leaving the country via a land border are not scrutinized by Brazilian authorities.

The diplomat said Brazil’s federal police were not monitoring Bolsonaro when he left his home in Brasilia because the Supreme Court had not issued a warrant for his arrest.

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. His Liberal Party released a statement saying it accepted the election results.

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. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing.

Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press reporters Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro, Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Seung Min Kim in Washington D.C. contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Fernanda Bolsonaro along with her husband, Flávio Bolsonaro arrive at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after the presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — King tides have inundated parts of both U.S. coasts, flooding streets and sending seawater into homes and businesses in beach communities in California, Florida and the Carolinas.

The tides began with the full moon earlier this week and could cause flooding in some areas into the weekend, forecasters said. King tides are caused by the gravitational pull and alignments of the Earth, moon, and sun. They can occur several times a year and last several days.

This week's king tides have been exacerbated by additional factors, forecasters said Wednesday.

In Florida, strong high pressure to the north and low pressure over the Caribbean were causing increased swells, Chris Fisher, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Miami, said.

Along the California coast, the ongoing super El Niño has warmed the ocean, leading to an increased volume of seawater. Another factor was the occurrence of Kelvin waves, a series of pulses of warm water that lift the sea level, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service's Bay Area forecast office in Monterey.

This week's king tides, like their name, have definitely been noticeable. Residents didn't need a beach to see the ocean. The ocean came to them.

In Southern California, Stacey Frederick snapped photos and videos of people walking in knee-deep water and paddleboarding on the Pacific Coast Highway outside a coffee shop where she works as rising tides pushed water ashore. Officials shut down traffic on a flooded portion of the four-lane highway, which winds from Orange County up through California.

King tides aren’t new, but this was unusual, Frederick said.

“It floods a little bit, but never to this point,” said Frederick, 38, who as lived in Huntington Beach for five years

Tides were expected to approach record levels in Orange County, where Huntington Beach is located, as well as in San Diego County.

In the northern part of the state, minor flooding was expected through Saturday in low-lying areas along shorelines and tidal waterways during peak high tides, the weather service said.

Gass said the coastal flooding generally occurred within 1 1/2 hours before and after high tides, which are peaking 1.9 feet (about a half-meter) above normal in Northern California.

Most of Florida’s Atlantic coast was under flood warnings through early Friday. Street flooding also was reported in South Carolina coastal cities, including Charleston and Myrtle Beach, and rip currents were possible as far north as North Carolina's Outer Banks.

“It’s been a rough beach week,” Fisher said. “We’ve had a high risk of rip currents and some high surf out there. The beach conditions are going to continue to be rough through the weekend. It’s been a good week to stay out of the water and stay away from the beaches.”

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, getting to the multiple waterfront venues at what’s billed as the world’s largest-in-water boat show was tricky, requiring driving through flooded streets next to marinas, hotels and convention centers.

Virginia Key, a barrier island in Miami, saw its highest king tide and the third-highest water level since records were first kept going back three decades, Fisher said.

“The only times we've seen higher was during hurricanes,” Fisher said. “It's historical from a king tide perspective.”

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

A man surfs through floodwaters in Huntington Beach, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Members of the Deakins family remove floodwater from their garage in Huntington Beach, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Pedestrians walk through a flooded street caused by king tides and heavy rain Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in North Bay Village, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Sandbags are placed outside a home to protect it from floodwaters in Huntington Beach, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Pedestrians walk through a flooded street caused by king tides and heavy rain in North Bay Village, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

H.E. Durbin paddleboards in floodwaters in Huntington Beach, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)