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Published on: 02/10/2026 - 10:56

How did Paraguay become the preferred destination for Brazilian supporters of Bolsonaro? In 2025, this small country wedged between Argentina and Brazil broke a record by issuing 40,600 residence permits to foreign nationals, more than half of which to Brazilians. And this figure will increase in 2026, the Bolsonarists fearing a victory in the October presidential elections for the current head of state Lula, accused of plunging their country into an unprecedented economic crisis.

Brazil will elect its future president on October 4 and 25, but part of the population has decided to take the lead and go into exile, convinced that the country will go from bad to worse if the current head of state, Lula, is re-elected.

They are Bolsonaro supporters, father Jair – sentenced to twenty-seven years in prison for coup d’état – and son Flavio – presidential candidate. They fear the defeat of the far right and prefer to try their luck on the other side of the border, in Paraguay, which has become the El Dorado of the disillusioned Bolsonaristas.

Read alsoBrazil: Flavio Bolsonaro, in the name of the father, the sons and the holy ideology

A small country wedged between Argentina and Brazil, Paraguay is now seen as a tax haven by Brazilians, who accuse Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of suffocating them fiscally.

In 2025, Paraguay issued 40,600 residence permits to foreign nationals, including 23,500 to Brazilians. In 2026, this figure is expected to increase further. In the first three months of the year alone, 9,200 residence permits were issued to Brazilians.

In the far south of Brazil, it is a border in constant turmoil. Day and night hundreds of cars and trucks parade on this friendship bridge, which connects Brazil to Paraguay with one objective: to settle.

A report by Fanny Lothaire, Valeria Saccone and Mélanie Blondeau.

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