A federal judge in Buenos Aires has opened a preliminary inquiry into whether Argentine officials helped Brazil’s defeated presidential candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, leave Brazil, ordering camera footage from the border and the airport preserved.
Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti acted at the request of federal prosecutor Paloma Ochoa. She ordered recordings kept from the Tancredo Neves bridge, where Bolsonaro crossed from Brazil into Puerto Iguazú, in Misiones province, and from the town’s airport, including footage of the private jet. She also asked the immigration agency and the Foreign Ministry to certify whether anything barred him from entering Argentina. The measures are preliminary: Ochoa will decide whether to open a criminal case.
The inquiry began with a criminal complaint from left-wing leader Gabriel Solano, and a second, from opposition lawmaker Esteban Paulón, is expected to be added to the file. The complaints accuse President Milei and officials including Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva and Santiago Caputo, a political consultant who advises Milei (and is not Economy Minister Luis Caputo), of offenses that include aggravated cover-up, meaning help to evade the authorities, abuse of authority and misuse of public funds.
A third complaint, from opposition lawmaker Marcela Pagano, went to the federal prosecutor in Puerto Iguazú, Fabián Martínez, who dismissed it on Thursday. Reports from the immigration agency and from Interpol, the international police network, found nothing barring Bolsonaro’s entry. Martínez concluded that he had the documents and legal standing to enter, travel through and leave Argentina, and that no crime had been committed in that jurisdiction. He sent a copy of his decision to Ochoa’s office in Buenos Aires.
Cabinet chief Diego Santilli, the president’s top minister, defended the handling in Rosario on Thursday: “He came in through immigration and had no Interpol impediments. That is the clear conclusion.”
Two reports link Caputo to the operation. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a former Argentine intelligence chief, that he monitored it from Puerto Iguazú and, citing a person involved, that he was in direct contact with Bolsonaro’s brother Eduardo, who lives in the United States. La Nación reported that a Misiones police record shows Caputo identified at a checkpoint on Route 12 at 2:50 a.m., about two and a half hours after the jet took off, in a vehicle with diplomatic plates belonging to Yacyretá, the binational hydroelectric agency. According to the record, he told police he was a political consultant and adviser to Milei and asked not to be delayed. Caputo denied to the newspaper that he was identified there.
Baires Fly, the Buenos Aires charter company that operates the Gulfstream, booked the jet for a US aviation broker, a company source said. The broker, whose name the firm withholds, paid about US$140,000 up front. The Journal also reported that a small group including Trump adviser Jason Miller secured a charter jet to take Bolsonaro from Argentina to Florida.
Peronist members of the joint congressional commission that oversees the intelligence agencies have asked the SIDE, the state intelligence service, to say whether it took part in the operation, whether it used public money and what role Caputo played. The commission’s chair, Sebastián Pareja, is a lawmaker from Milei’s own party. Members said the SIDE could answer in writing first, and that its officials could be summoned if the answers fall short.
