Rubio says Washington did not help Flavio Bolsonaro flee Brazil, and agrees to meet Brazil's foreign minister again in France

The denial was the news. Reports in American media had said Bolsonaro's journey out of Brazil, through Argentina and Ecuador, was partly arranged with the help of Jason Miller, a White House official. Rubio told reporters in Atlanta on Saturday that the administration did not help Bolsonaro flee. Brazil has summoned an Argentinian diplomat over the flight, and Bolsonaro is under investigation in Brazil for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. Before he left he had been ordered to surrender his passport because police deemed him a flight risk.

Bolsonaro has refused to concede the election and has called the result fraudulent without providing evidence. Trump, who had called Brazil's election rigged, voiced sympathy for him and said he could stay in the United States indefinitely. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is imprisoned in Brazil for plotting a coup after losing his own reelection bid in 2022.

The diplomatic track is moving at the same time. Vieira took part in the G20 foreign ministers meeting Rubio hosted in Atlanta, the two men spoke briefly on Friday and Saturday, and a source familiar with the plans said they agreed to meet again in the coming weeks, before a G20 leaders summit in Miami in December. Rubio said they were also expected to see each other in France next month at a G7 foreign ministers summit, which Brazil is expected to attend as an observer. A Brazilian official downplayed the tensions, which run from the American decision in August to revoke the visa of Brazil's ambassador in Washington, to Brazil's failure to approve Trump's pick for ambassador in Brasilia, to the visa granted to Flavio Bolsonaro himself.

None of that settles the question sitting underneath the diplomacy, which is how long the losing candidate in Brazil's election stays in Florida, and on what terms. Humanitarian parole typically lasts one year. The meetings in France will happen long before that clock runs out.