The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has announced that the former presidential candidate and Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro will participate in the organization’s annual gala this Thursday at the Mar a Lago club, the residence of U.S. President Donald Trump, in Florida. This appearance will be his first in-person public appearance since he left Brazil for U.S. territory.
Through a statement released on social networks, the conservative platform confirmed that the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro will be listed among the event’s main speakers, which will take place in the Donald J. Trump auditorium of the Palm Beach complex. His speech is part of the strategy of the right-wing politician to project his message internationally after leaving Brazil on October 28, three days after losing in the runoff of the presidential election to the current head of state, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s return to the public scene in the United States occurs shortly after the senator justified his departure from the country by claiming that he was suffering “persecution” at the hands of Brazilian judicial authorities. In his first remote interventions, Bolsonaro attacked Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes—responsible for ordering the cancellation of his passport—denounced a supposed electoral fraud without presenting evidence, and expressed his intention to lead an “opposition in exile” against Lula’s Government.
Although Trump has made clear that, for now, he does not contemplate holding a bilateral meeting with the Brazilian leader, the U.S. president has supported his staying in the country by saying that Bolsonaro is welcome to remain in the United States “as long as he wants.”