Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro might “eventually” request authorization to stay for a “more permanent” period in the United States, where he has been since the end of last year, his lawyer Felipe Alexandre reported today.
“I think Florida will be his temporary home away from home,” Alexandre told the British newspaper Financial Times, according to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
“Now, with this situation, I think (Bolsonaro) needs some stability,” added the lawyer, referring to the attack carried out by supporters of the former president at the headquarters of public powers in Brasilia on the 8th of this month.
Alexandre revealed that he advised Bolsonaro not to leave US territory while the authorization to stay there is processed.
Bolsonaro might stay in the United States
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the former president’s sons, warned this weekend that his father’s return to Brazil “might be tomorrow, in six months or never.”
Bolsonaro arrived in Florida, in the southern United States, on December 30, two days before the end of his term, to avoid personally transferring the attributes of command to his successor, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A few days later, a controversy arose regarding the situation of the former president in the United States, since it was assumed that at the end of his term the official passport with which he entered had expired.
However, sources close to the former president assured that he requested and obtained a tourist visa that allows him to stay on US soil for six months, according to the Financial Times and O Globo.
That visa might have been processed at the US embassy in Brasilia by Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle, who returned to her country last week, according to newspapers.
Bolsonaro’s situation also generated controversy within the ruling Democratic Party in the United States.
On the 12th of this month, 46 Democratic congressmen asked the White House in writing to reevaluate Bolsonaro’s case and revoke “any diplomatic visa he has.”
A few days earlier, more than 70 US and Brazilian congressmen condemned in a joint statement the attack by the “anti-democratic extreme right” in Brasilia and compared it to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In this context, the governments of Brazil and the United States confirmed days ago that Lula will visit President Joe Biden at the White House on February 10.
