Ex-far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is symptom-free and stable but remains hospitalized after a severe bout of stomach pain. This illness issue forced him to cut short a regional tour in northeast Brazil to rally political support.
The latest bout of poor health comes six years after Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen in a traumatic episode that occurred weeks before the 2018 presidential election, which he won.
Bolsonaro, who was 70 and was at a political rally in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, began feeling “unbearable abdominal pain,” a senior member of his Liberal Party said.
In July 2023, a Brazilian court suspended Bolsonaro from public office until 2030 after he was found guilty of abuse of power, for his efforts to discredit the trust in Brazil’s electronic voting system. He has been attempting to overturn this suspension since leaving office in 2022, hoping to stage a political comeback of the kind pulled off by his idol, U.S. President Donald Trump.
But his aspirations were extinguished in the last month when the Supreme Court directed him to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to overthrow in office President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Conviction carries a prison sentence of more than 40 years, alongside a lifetime political ban.
Widely referred to as the “Trump of the Tropics,” Bolsonaro has been the target of numerous investigations during his tumultuous tenure as the leader of Latin America’s largest economy. He was set to embark on a political tour of Rio Grande do Norte on Friday, but his health problems stood in his way.
Following his hospitalization, Bolsonaro was stabilized and thereafter airlifted to a larger hospital in Natal, the state capital. Hospital medical department head Luiz Roberto Fonseca confirmed that the former president will be monitored through the night. Surgeon Helio Barreto stated that for the moment, no operation is planned and that Bolsonaro already showed signs of improvement with reduced pain.
Earlier television footage revealed Bolsonaro walking to the helicopter, exhibiting clear discomfort. In a social media post on X platform, he expressed gratitude to all for his stable condition and recovery and stated, “Thank God, my condition is stable and I am recovering, without fever. The clinical progress is good.” He attached a picture of him in a hospital bed, thumbing up, although with a tube in his nose and electrodes on his chest.
Bolsonaro blamed his discomfort on an intestinal complication resulting from the multiple surgeries he had undergone since being attacked in 2018. He has at least four times undergone surgery, one of them involving the removal and insertion of a colostomy bag, and therefore, he is likely to experience complications in his intestines.
