Michael D. Butler

Flávio Bolsonaro’s Statement in English on His Stolen Presidential Victory I address the Brazilian people and the international community as Brazil’s leader. First and foremost, I would like to thank President Milei for his courage, sense of justice, and respect for the law, and President Trump and the wonderful American people for welcoming me. This is a land of freedoms and of brothers and sisters who share the same values as the good people of my country. President Trump is a great defender of freedom of expression. On Sunday night, I watched in disbelief as electoral fraud unfolded before my eyes. The illegitimate and illegal actions of Lula’s former lawyer allowed a mathematical impossibility to become reality, with Lula gaining more than 10 million votes between the first and second rounds. A ruling by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), overriding the jurisdiction of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), extended voting at the very last moment, and the order only arrived after the legal closing time, when the polls had already closed. Voters were subjected to different rules. So far, the TSE has confined itself to defending the extension of voting hours, without providing even a single credible answer. And these grounds for invalidation are not the only problem. Throughout the campaign, there was abuse of political and economic power, as well as the use of government resources to favor reelection. These are serious acts, expressly prohibited by law, that justify disqualifying the Lula–Alckmin ticket. The regime’s response to my challenge came swiftly. As though following a previously devised plan, seven minutes after this repugnant electoral fraud, the judge—who is implicated in a massive corruption scandal, directly named in the investigation he used to try to confiscate my passports, and who would very likely be in prison had they not prevented me from taking office—set the regime’s machinery of political persecution in motion. Given that he was legally barred from the outset and entirely lacking in impartiality to initiate any judicial proceedings against me, his mere participation in procedural acts demonstrates the scale of the arbitrariness and illegality now underway. It was not my intention to leave my homeland, but I know exactly where this is heading. This is the classic playbook of any coup d’état. The political persecution that began with my father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and spread to thousands of other ordinary, patriotic Brazilians and even American citizens has a single objective: to silence anyone who disagrees with the authoritarian regime established in Brazil through a Supreme Court captured by the Workers’ Party’s criminal organization. To be clear, there is no arrest warrant against me, because I have committed no crime. What exists is a politically motivated witch hunt intended to hold me hostage and use me as a tool of blackmail to protect corrupt Supreme Court justices from impeachment. Here is the persecution’s script: passport confiscation, an electronic ankle monitor, censorship, house arrest, a sham trial, and, finally, a politically motivated conviction. I will not subject my family to this, and my country does not deserve to endure this international disgrace again. Faced with the political weaponization of Brazil’s justice system, I brought my family to the United States, where we are safe. Once again, I thank President Trump and the American government for welcoming us and providing the legal protections we no longer have in Brazil. I want to make this clear: I did not flee Brazil; I left for Brazil’s sake. I left an authoritarian regime so that I could be the leader my people deserve, because silenced, imprisoned, and censored, as my father is, I could not provide that leadership, and we would be left with the institutional theater of an emasculated opposition controlled by a Supreme Court filled with the regime’s servants. I am not the first person who has had to fight for his own country from abroad. Rui Barbosa went into exile for confronting Floriano Peixoto’s arbitrary rule, and from there continued defending the law and freedom. Charles de Gaulle led Free France from London, sentenced to death by the Vichy regime, and returned to liberate his country. José Martí organized the struggle for Cuban independence from New York. In Venezuela, Juan Guaidó and Edmundo González had to leave the country for confronting the Chavista dictatorship, and María Corina Machado, despite being persecuted, refused to legitimize the fraud and became a global symbol of democratic resistance. All of them were treated as criminals by the regimes they confronted. History called them something else. This is only the beginning of our struggle for democracy, human rights, and freedom in Brazil. I want to tell not only my 60 million voters, but the Brazilian people, that I am the leader, and that the criminals who stole Brazil’s election are part of a criminal organization that has imposed a tyranny. You wanted change, and I will not abandon you. I will be our nation’s voice and its free leadership. To Brazil’s institutions, I make this appeal: this madness must end. Brazil today is engulfed in legal chaos, corruption, and political persecution, in which the opposition is afraid to speak and a former president’s family is treated as an enemy of the state. No nation can live in peace or prosper this way. There is still time to restore the balance among the branches of government and give Brazilians back the confidence they have lost. To the international community, I ask: do not normalize what is happening in Brazil. What is happening in my country today is not normal and cannot be treated as normal. To the senators, representatives, and governors whom I helped elect, and especially to my candidate for president of the Senate, Rogério Marinho: I know that today you lack the freedom necessary to carry out your political duties fully. Therefore, I will lead the opposition from here. I will say what you cannot say there, and I will take the risks you cannot take. And to you, who voted for me and dream of change: we are not defeated, and we are not alone. This is only the beginning of our struggle for democracy, human rights, and freedom in Brazil. In the coming days, I will address the Brazilian people regularly, and we will present a strategy to mobilize the opposition and the immense popular support we have, through every peaceful and legitimate means, to prevent Lula from consolidating a dictatorial regime in Brazil. I ask each of you to stand firm and never give up. I left Brazil, but I have not abandoned the Brazilian people. This struggle did not end on October 25. It will end only when Brazil becomes a free country again. And that day will come. May God bless Brazil. Flávio Bolsonaro