The plane carrying Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday morning. The Brazilian senator arrived at Opa-locka Executive Airport, north of Miami, at 9:20 a.m., after fleeing Brazil less than two days after losing the Brazilian presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro arrived in Florida after promising he would remain in Brazil to lead the opposition to Lula. Before leaving the country, he failed to comply with an order from Brazil’s Supreme Court requiring him to surrender his passports. On Tuesday, the administration of Donald Trump announced that it would issue visas for Bolsonaro, his wife and their two daughters.

Tuesday was marked by a series of confusing and self-serving accounts, with no one certain of Bolsonaro’s whereabouts. Earlier in the day, Argentina’s immigration authorities denied that he had entered the country, which was true at the time: he had not yet crossed the border.

Bolsonaro entered Argentina at 10:50 p.m. that night with his wife and two daughters, crossing via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, which links Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, with Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. The crossing was later confirmed by Argentina’s immigration agency in a statement issued at 2 a.m.

Barely 40 minutes after crossing the border, the family was on board a Gulfstream G400 operated by Baires Fly, which had been waiting at Puerto Iguazú airport since Monday.

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, regarded as the Bolsonaro family’s chief adversary, had ordered the cancellation of Flávio Bolsonaro’s Brazilian passports and the surrender of his Italian passport, which he obtained in 2023.

According to the flight manifest, Bolsonaro crossed the border using his European passport, while his wife and daughters travelled on Brazilian passports. The aircraft took off shortly after midnight for Guayaquil, Ecuador. It landed there before dawn, refuelled and departed again half an hour later, according to the newspaper El Universo.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court on suspicion of money laundering and foreign-exchange evasion alongside his friend Willer Tomaz, a lawyer with business interests in the betting industry. Federal Police investigators suspect the senator is Tomaz’s silent partner. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Bolsonaro at one point had administrative access to a bank account belonging to a Tomaz company registered in Madeira, and the two men share addresses, travel records and business associates. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Bolsonaro’s stopovers were not accidental. Javier Milei’s Argentina is the Bolsonaro family’s closest ally in the region and has yet to recognize Lula’s election victory. “There will be no statement,” Milei’s government said. In July, at the launch of Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign in São Paulo, Milei referred to Lula as a “convict” and a “thief,” prompting Brazil to summon its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations.

Daniel Noboa’s Ecuador, meanwhile, is one of Donald Trump’s closest partners in Latin America and, by extension, an ally of the Bolsonaros. Neither Argentina’s presidency nor Baires Fly immediately responded to requests for comment.

Bolsonaro’s decision to leave Brazil comes after a defeat that neither he nor his supporters had expected. Although he finished ahead of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round on October 4, Lula staged a comeback to win Sunday’s runoff with 51.79% of the vote, compared with 48.21% for Bolsonaro. It was an unprecedented turnaround in Brazil’s democratic history.

Flávio Bolsonaro did not concede defeat, but hours later insisted he had never intended to leave the country and would instead lead the opposition against the left. His Senate term expires at the end of the year and, after 24 years in politics, he will no longer hold elected office. Without a seat in Congress, he will also lose the legal protections afforded to officeholders.

What Bolsonaro plans to do in the United States remains unclear, but the path has already been paved. The country has become a political rear base for the Bolsonaro family. His father, Jair Bolsonaro, flew to Orlando two days before leaving office in December 2022 and spent three months there while his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace in Brasília. His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has lived in Texas since early 2025 and, from there, lobbied the Trump administration to impose tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on Moraes. Brazil’s Supreme Court later sentenced Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years and two months in prison over those efforts.

The Trump administration has made its support clear. His administration appointed a Brazil adviser close to the Bolsonaro family and has now opened the door to the son who was expected to inherit the Bolsonaro political movement.

On Monday, less than 24 hours after Brazil’s election, Trump publicly questioned the result. “It looked like another rigged election, frankly,” the Republican president told reporters. “I didn’t take sides, but it was a terrible look for the world.”

Trump, who faces pivotal elections of his own in less than a week and has already sown doubts about the process, went on to add: “Elections have to be indisputable, and it looked really bad to me.”

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The Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line, where two trains collided on Wednesday, has several signalling and protection systems designed to regulate traffic, control the distance between trains and reduce the risk of accidents. According to government sources, early evidence suggests the collision may have been triggered by human error after a failure in the line’s main signalling system.

The collision occurred at kilometer 118 of the line, between the towns of Mora, Orgaz and Urda, in the province of Toledo, on Spain’s oldest high-speed railway, which opened in April 1992 to coincide with that year’s Universal Exposition in Seville.

According to Adif’s Network Statement, which details the characteristics of the rail infrastructure and the access conditions for train operators, the infrastructure uses the German LZB (Linienzugbeeinflussung) system, a railway safety technology that continuously monitors train speeds and transmits traffic instructions to the engineer’s cab. However, when the automated safety system fails, operations revert to manual control.

Early reports suggest that the safety system failed on Wednesday, causing eight trains in the area to be brought to a halt. The control center subsequently switched to manual operation and instructed all trains to resume their journeys. One Iryo service, however, was unable to restart and remained stationary on the track. Following an instruction issued by the controller at Madrid’s Atocha control center, an AVE high-speed train travelling behind it resumed service and shortly afterwards collided with the Iryo train at a speed that has not yet been determined.

The Madrid-Seville high-speed rail line is currently undergoing a major modernization program. The LZB system is being replaced by the more advanced European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), an EU initiative designed to standardize railroad signaling and control systems across Europe and ensure interoperability between national networks. The version being deployed on the line, ERTMS Level 2, also provides continuous speed and braking supervision but relies on radio communications rather than information transmitted at fixed points by trackside devices.

Rail safety does not depend on a single technology. The infrastructure combines signaling systems, train-detection equipment, and block-control procedures designed to maintain safe separation between trains and prevent conflicting movements. Among the protection systems in use is ASFA (Announcement of Signals and Automatic Braking), which transmits information from trackside beacons to the train operator. Installed on all major lines owned by Spain’s state-owned railway infrastructure manager Adif, including the route connecting central Spain with Andalusia, ASFA alerts operators to certain fixed signals, monitors speed as trains approach them, and can automatically apply the brakes in specific situations, such as when a train passes a stop signal.

In addition to these train protection systems, the rail network relies on a range of traffic-management safety mechanisms, including block-control systems. According to Adif’s Network Statement, the line where the crash occurred is equipped with an Automatic Block Control (BCA) system. Under this system, train operators receive continuous information in the cab about speed and distance, helping ensure that speed limits are not exceeded.

Adif’s signalling technical standards (NAS 811) also include train detection systems, which are used to divide the track into sections (blocks) and continuously identify the presence or absence of movements, enabling safe management of rail traffic.

Added to all this are the communications systems with the command center. Spanish high-speed lines use GSM-R, a mobile technology that enables voice and data communications between trains and control centers through dedicated frequency bands to avoid interference. GSM-R replaced the older analog Train-Ground system, which provided communications between individual trains and the control center.

Investigators will now have to reconstruct the full sequence of events, from the possible signaling failure to the order for trains to resume service and the subsequent collision, in order to determine whether the prescribed procedures were followed and whether any technical or human errors contributed to the crash.

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At least 64 people have died in a train accident that occurred Wednesday morning near Urda station in Toledo, Spain, according to the government, which fears there may be more fatalities. “It could be worse than Adamuz [the rail accident in Córdoba that claimed 46 lives on January 18],” government sources said. The authorities also said 80 people had been injured, 50 of them seriously. At least 55 people had been transferred to hospitals in the area, the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha confirmed.

An AVE high-speed train collided with an Iryo train that was stopped on the tracks, according to sources from the emergency services, who indicated that two cars fell down an embankment. According to initial reports, the AVE train may have struck the Iryo train from behind, causing two cars of the latter train to derail.

Spanish state rail company Renfe has reported that train service between Madrid, Ciudad Real, and Andalusia has been suspended. The government and the opposition have canceled their schedules for Wednesday after receiving news of the accident.

“I am in constant contact with the Minister of Transportation and the premier of Castilla-La Mancha. Emergency services are working on the ground to assist those affected and ensure their safety, in coordination with all the relevant authorities. My thoughts, solidarity, and support go out to all the victims and their families,” posted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on X.

Among the passengers was former Popular Party labor minister Fátima Báñez, whose condition remains unknown. “I can’t give you any information [about Báñez], but we’re in contact with her family, who are already in the area. We’re gathering information,” said Antonio Sanz, the regional minister for the presidency and head of emergency management in Andalusia.

“A human error by an [state-owned railway infrastructure company] Adif operator in response to a malfunction in the main signaling system is the likely cause of the accident,” government sources said. This safety system is automated, but when it fails, it switches to manual mode. That is why the trains came to a stop when the automatic safety system failed, and service resumed under human control — and that is where the error occurred, according to initial analyses.

Rafael Escudero, spokesperson for the Railway Union, said that the accident was “very unusual.” Speaking to Antena 3 radio, he noted that there is no passenger stop in that area, that train traffic is monitored in real time, and that the train also receives real-time information on the condition of the tracks; if there is an obstacle — such as another train — it would stop.

‘What I encountered was horrific’

A passenger traveling in one of the rear cars of one of the trains told EL PAÍS that he felt a “strong impact” about 40 minutes into the trip. The collision occurred at kilometer marker 118, between the towns of Mora, Orgaz, and Urda (Toledo). The Renfe train involved in the accident had stopped and slowed down minutes earlier due to a traffic problem on the line. The explanation points to human error, because when the safety system failed, about eight trains in the area came to a stop; they were then ordered to move, but the Iryo train was unable to do so and remained stationary.

Another passenger, Miguel Ángel Pérez, who had already exited the train, told state broadcaster TVE by phone that the accident was “terrible, indescribable.” He was travelling in the last car of Renfe’s AVE 2080, which was carrying a total of 397 passengers. “We’ve come to realize the immense gravity” of what happened, he admitted. “With the huge impact and the rattling, we started clinging to our seats,” he said. “We were able to get out of the car by breaking the windows,” he noted before hanging up because he was being asked to provide his ID to authorities.

Ambulances and hearses continued to arrive at and leave the scene of the accident later Wednesday morning, where not all the bodies have yet been recovered. In the area, a priest from Consuegra — just a few miles from the crash site — says he arrived at 10 a.m. and administered last rites to two people near the tracks. “What I encountered was horrific — many victims in very bad condition. Most of them were young people. I had never faced a situation like this before.”

According to initial analyses, an operator at the Atocha control center in Madrid mistakenly ordered the Renfe train to proceed even though the Iryo was blocking the track; this ultimately led to a rear-end collision — at a speed yet to be determined — between the Renfe train and the Iryo, which caused the accident. Investigations are ongoing, but these are the initial findings from technical experts, according to government sources.

The spokesperson for the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, Esther Padilla, confirmed on TVE that there were numerous fatalities, but announced that the number “will most certainly rise.” “The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has offered its assistance, as have Castilla-León, Madrid, Andalusia, and Navarre — the latter being the most recent to join the effort,” Padilla added.

Although there is no official confirmation of fatalities at this time, this accident brings to mind the derailment of two high-speed trains in Adamuz (Córdoba) on January 18, which was the most serious train accident in Spain since 2013, when an Alvia train connecting Madrid with Ferrol derailed on a curve in Angrois, near Santiago de Compostela, due to excessive speed. Eighty people died and another 145 were injured.

The worst accident in Spanish railway history is considered to be the one that occurred in Torre del Bierzo (León) on January 3, 1944. It involved a collision inside a tunnel between an express train, a shunting locomotive, and a freight train, resulting in an official death toll of 78. However, it is believed that the actual number of fatalities was concealed by the Franco regime. Other accidents with a high number of casualties occurred in El Cuervo (Seville) on July 21, 1972, when a head-on collision between a railbus operating on the Cádiz–Seville route and an express train from Madrid resulted in 86 deaths and 112 injuries; and on the Valencia Metro on July 3, 2006, when a Metrovalencia subway train derailed due to high speed on a curve, resulting in 43 deaths and 47 injuries.

Members of the Adamuz victims’ association have said they want to help and share their experience following the events of January 18. José Manuel, a member of the association’s board of directors and a relative of one of the women injured in the previous accident, put it this way: “Every step they take from here on out has consequences they are not yet able to fully assess.”

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