Rubio denies US role in Flavio Bolsonaro's flight from Brazil

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington did not facilitate Flávio Bolsonaro's flight from Brazil to the United States, after the Brazilian senator's departure became the subject of an official inquiry in Argentina.

Rubio said the US government did not facilitate the trip, the Associated Press reported. The Hindu quoted him as saying Washington was not directly involved in the senator's travel from Brazil. Anadolu Agency carried a similar account, saying Rubio denied a US role in the departure. The reports did not say how or when Bolsonaro travelled, or where he is now.

In Buenos Aires, federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti ordered President Javier Milei's government to disclose the details of its assistance to Bolsonaro, the Buenos Aires Times reported. The judge acted at the request of a prosecutor, the paper said. It did not specify what assistance the government is alleged to have given, or by when the information must be produced. The reports carried no public comment from the Milei government on the order.

The Buenos Aires Times also reported that an airline owner has said a "US broker" paid for Bolsonaro's flight. The paper did not name the broker, the airline owner or the evidence behind the claim.

Flávio Bolsonaro is a Brazilian senator and a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The reports did not say whether Brazilian authorities are examining his departure, and gave no response from him or from the Brazilian government.

Rubio is the top-ranking official in the US State Department and the administration's chief diplomat. His remarks put the US government on record about a trip that is now being examined in two South American capitals: Brasilia, where Bolsonaro holds office, and Buenos Aires, where a federal court has demanded the Milei administration account for its part.

What the accounts leave open is the central question: who arranged and paid for the senator's travel, and on what authority. The Buenos Aires Times said only that the judge's measures were sought by a prosecutor. Neither the Argentine court record nor the US statements released so far describe the flight itself.