Reported by BBC World
Watch: Bolsonaro shielded from media by umbrellas at Florida airport
Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who landed in Miami after losing the presidential election on Sunday, has said it was never his intention to "leave my homeland".
"I did not flee Brazil; I left for the sake of Brazil," he said in his first statement since his departure.
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The US provided visas to him and his family after Brazil cancelled his passports as part of a criminal investigation. Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump told reporters: "We gave him a pass to come into the country".
Newly reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticised Bolsonaro's secretive exit from the country, saying "those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear".
Bolsonaro's arrival in Florida ended days of confusion over his whereabouts, after he was reported to have travelled to Argentina, and then prematurely reported to have already entered the US on Tuesday.
In a statement, Bolsonaro thanked both the presidents of Argentina and the US, and the American public "who share the same values as the good people of my own country".
"It was never my intention to leave my homeland, but I know exactly where this is heading," he said. "I departed from a regime of exception so that I could become the leader my people deserve."
He called himself a victim of a coup d'état and political persecution, and said his travel to the US was to protect his family.
In the lengthy letter, he also repeated unsubstantiated allegations of "electoral fraud" which he said allowed a "mathematical impossibility" to occur in the election.
On Wednesday, Trump declined to discuss the allegations made in Bolsonaro's letter.
"I won't get involved. It was a very strange election, that's for sure," Trump said. He went on to add that he thought Bolsonaro "and his family were treated very unfairly".
After Bolsonaro won the first round of Brazil's election, Lula won the second round by more than four million votes, which was attributed to significantly higher turnout, and swaying more undecided voters.
The result was…