By Their Fruits: Eduardo and Flávio Bolsonaro

Two sons of the same former president, two mandates given by the Brazilian people: one federal deputy for São Paulo, one senator for Rio de Janeiro. What they did with those mandates is documented — in official letters, in the records of the Supreme Court and in their own words.

Eduardo: asking for punishment for his own country

In March 2025, Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro took leave from his mandate and moved to the United States. He did not hide his purpose: he said publicly, and with pride, that he was going to ask the American government for sanctions against the Brazilian authorities who were judging his father. When the leave ended, he did not return to the place to which he had been elected.

The operation worked. In July 2025, within a few weeks, the Trump administration revoked the visas of Brazilian judges, applied Magnitsky Act sanctions to Justice Alexandre de Moraes and announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods. The letter of 9 July 2025 that announced the tariff invoked no commercial reason: it invoked the trial of Jair Bolsonaro. That is, an official document of a foreign government stated in writing that the economic punishment of Brazil had as its cause a Brazilian judicial proceeding.

A tariff is not an idea: it is an invoice, and someone pays it. It was not paid by the deputy on leave, whose salary kept landing in his account. It was paid by the coffee grower in Minas, the cattle rancher in the Centre-West, the shoe worker and the small fruit exporter. The Brazilian government spent months negotiating, and only in November 2025 was part of the tariffs withdrawn, notably on coffee and beef.

«Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.»

James 5:4

When lobbying becomes a crime

Advocating a cause abroad is legitimate. Using the power of a foreign power to pressure a court in one's own country has another name in the Criminal Code. The Federal Police indicted Eduardo for coercion in the course of proceedings and, in September 2025, the Attorney General's Office charged him, together with the commentator Paulo Figueiredo, who also lives in the United States. The defence says he is exercising freedom of expression. There is a bitter irony: when the Supreme Court imposed the ankle monitor on his father, in July 2025, one of the reasons was precisely the son's activity abroad.

Flávio: the film and the banker

Before the election, Flávio was already at the centre of another story: that of the film Dark Horse, a biographical tribute to his father. According to reporting by The Intercept Brasil, the financing negotiated with Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, came to about 134 million reais. Flávio acknowledged the authenticity of an audio recording in which he duns the banker for the overdue instalments, and acknowledged the contract; he says everything was legal and private. Some 61 million are said to have gone to the United States through a fund linked to Eduardo's allies, who signed as executive producer — the amounts are under investigation. The production company even applied for 8.6 million under the Rouanet Law, the same law the senator attacks as a «cultural racket», and withdrew the application.

Vorcaro was arrested in November 2025, as he tried to leave the country, accused of a fraud with an estimated hole of 47 billion reais. There is as yet no verdict on the film. But the fruit is already visible: a tribute to a «Christian» leader paid for by the owner of a bank that collapsed in a billion-dollar fraud.

Flávio: four days of October

On 25 October 2026, Lula defeated Flávio Bolsonaro by about 4.4 million votes, counted by the same ballot boxes that had elected the father in 2018. Flávio did not acknowledge the result. The Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passports and barred him from leaving the country, in the context of an investigation into money laundering. Publicly, he said he had never thought of leaving Brazil and that he would defend himself.

On Tuesday night, he crossed the bridge at Foz do Iguaçu into Argentina with his wife and daughters. According to Argentine migration services, he entered at 10:50 p.m. and left forty minutes later, in a chartered jet at Puerto Iguazú. The plane refuelled in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and landed in Florida the following morning.

• The United States, according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, provided the plane from the White House, through Jason Miller, in contact with Eduardo. The owner of the company told AFP that the trip — 150,000 dollars — was paid from an account at an American bank.
• Argentina let him through and applauded: a director of the Milei government celebrated that the senator was «safe from the claws of communism». Clarín reported, with anonymous sources, that Milei's chief adviser, Santiago Caputo, accompanied the operation; the government did not explain.
• Ecuador was only the stopover: no source shows any involvement of the Ecuadorian government — and it was the only one of the three that Flávio did not thank.

Already in Florida, Flávio thanked Milei «for the courage, sense of justice and legality» and Trump, «a great defender of freedom of expression». And he wrote: «It was not my intention to leave my homeland.» As of the date of this article there was no arrest warrant against him: there was only an order to surrender a document and answer an investigation, like any citizen. The Brazilian government opened an inquiry into the role of Argentina and the United States.

Even André Ventura, an ally of the same political family, said that Flávio «should not have fled» and that he would not give him asylum in Portugal.

«But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.»

Matthew 5:37

«The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.»

Proverbs 28:1

«Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?»

Matthew 7:16

This article is part of the series accompanying the book O Altar e o Algoritmo — Como identificar os novos mercadores da fé. The rule is the same as in the book: separate the proven fact from the suspicion and from the defence's denial, and put the source beside every claim.

The series «By Their Fruits»

• The far right that calls itself Christian
• Donald Trump
• Jair Bolsonaro
• Eduardo and Flávio Bolsonaro
• Javier Milei
• André Ventura

Sources

• CNN Brasil — Trump adviser provided jet for Flávio, says NYT (29/10/2026)
• Plataforma Media/AFP — The flight was paid from an account in the US (30/10/2026)
• Agência Pública — The route of Flávio Bolsonaro's flight
• Metrópoles — Milei's adviser accompanied the flight, says Clarín
• Revista Fórum — The Milei government defends Flávio's passage
• CNN Brasil — Brazil investigates Argentina's and the US's role in Flávio's flight (29/10/2026)
• Observador — Ventura says Flávio should not have fled (29/10/2026)
• Poder360 — The PT calls for Flávio Bolsonaro's arrest