By Fernando Cardoso and Luciana Magalhaes
SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, who arrived in the United States on Wednesday, has declared himself the rightful leader of Brazil, alleging an electoral coup d'etat had been carried out by the country's Supreme Court and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won the presidential election by over 4 million votes.
Bolsonaro, who lost Sunday's election and left Brazil for Miami, where he and his family received US visas, thanked
Argentine leader Javier Milei and US President Donald Trump for helping him leave his country and for welcoming him.
In an initial open letter posted on X, Bolsonaro declared himself "the elected president." He then deleted that version, and updated with another letter in which he said he was the rightful "leader" of Brazil.
"I want to say, not only to my 60 million voters but to 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 established a tyranny," he said in the updated version.
Asked by reporters at Joint Base Andrews about Bolsonaro's comments, Trump declined to comment, reiterating earlier views on how it was "a very strange election."
Bolsonaro's comments pose a problem for Washington as it seeks to navigate a rift with Latin America's largest country, home to the world's second-largest reserves of rare earths.
Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaro family to help return them to power. Ahead of Sunday's election, Reuters reported on a US State Department campaign to restore the Bolsonaros to office.
Washington has denied trying to interfere in Brazil's domestic affairs. Trump has previously alleged Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution.
Jair Bolsonaro travelled to the United States after refusing to concede defeat to Lula in 2022. He eventually returned to Brazil but was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia.
There was no immediate response from the State Department.
Neither Lula's office, the federal electoral court nor the Supreme Court immediately responded to requests for comment.
Lula, who was himself jailed on corruption charges that were later overturned, said this week that it was "shameful" Bolsonaro had not stayed in Brazil to prove his innocence.
NO PROOF
Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday, leaving Brazil after he refused to comply with a Brazilian Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. He left under a shroud of secrecy after the court order, which relates to a money-laundering investigation in which he denies wrongdoing.
Bolsonaro, who had been widely expected to win Sunday's election but suffered a shock defeat, did not provide evidence for the alleged electoral fraud. International observers have found Sunday's vote fair.
Bolsonaro based his rejection of the result on the fact that a Lula-appointed Supreme Court justice had extended voting by two hours on Sunday due to Lula campaign allegations of voter suppression in left-leaning northeastern states. However, Bolsonaro's campaign also sought an extension due to rains in conservative southern states.
Bolsonaro lost to Lula by around 4.5 million votes. Fewer than 35,000 votes, or some 0.03% of the total, were cast in the extra two hours of voting ordered by the Supreme Court, according to an analysis by Insper professor Pedro Burgos.
The scale of Bolsonaro's loss to Lula — by more than twice his father's losing margin — and the fact his campaign also asked for an extension due to rains in the conservative-leaning south make any annulment of the election unlikely, analysts said.
In his letter, Bolsonaro denied fleeing Brazil, saying he had left to protect himself and his family, and avoid being the victim of a witch hunt he accused Lula and the Brazilian Supreme Court of carrying out.
"I want to make this clear: I did not flee Brazil," he said. "I left Brazil, but I did not abandon the Brazilian people."
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Maximilian Heath in Buenos Aires, Eva Marie Uzcategui in Miami and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Oliver Griffin in Sao PauloEditing by Ros Russell, Franklin Paul and Aurora Ellis)
