From Guayaquil to Miami-Opa Locka

The Gulfstream IV registered as LV-JQW, carrying the Brazilian senator, left Guayaquil in Ecuador and was bound for Miami, Florida, with arrival expected mid-morning on Wednesday. Bolsonaro had lost Sunday night's election to the incumbent president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. After a brief stop in Ecuador, the family continued on to the Miami-Opa Locka executive airport. Bolsonaro is expected to hold a press conference in the US at some point on Wednesday.

The route through Argentina

The leg before Ecuador began at Puerto Iguazú, where the Gulfstream IV had been parked since the early hours of the previous morning, when Argentinian media first reported the senator intended to flee on it. Argentina's migration authorities said he had entered the country by land on Tuesday night.

• •Bolsonaro boarded the jet with his wife and two daughters at about 11.30pm.
• •The aircraft flew from Argentina to Guayaquil, reportedly to avoid Brazilian airspace.

Washington's welcome

The US response has been an open door. A senior state department official said visas would be granted to Bolsonaro and his family, and on Tuesday night the US president said he would approve their move to the country.

Donald Trump addressed the family and the election directly, saying: "They're fine people. The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible." He added that he had not taken sides, saying he knew Lula, knew Flávio a little and knew the senator's father very well.

Lula's rebuke and the questions back home

Lula called the flight "shameful". Speaking at an event celebrating his 81st birthday in Brasília, he said: "This is what the Bolsonaro family are like. Brazil is their second homeland. Their first homeland is licking the boots of the US, as they've become accustomed to doing."

The president's remarks sharpened a debate already running inside the Brazilian government, where some suspected Bolsonaro allies had spent Tuesday privately telling the press he was already on his way to the US, in order to distract from his real plan through Argentina.

The federal police are also facing criticism for failing to prevent the senator leaving the country. Attention has focused on the gap between about 6pm on Monday, when allies last saw him, and his entry into Argentina late on Tuesday. It remains unclear how or when he travelled to the border, or where he was during that time. The family's next public step is the promised press conference in the US.