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Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro remains hospitalized with abdominal pain

Doctors say former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro remains hospitalized with abdominal pain and is expected to be transferred by medical aircraft from northeastern Brazil to the capital Brasilia

Via AP news wire
Saturday 12 April 2025 20:13 BST
Brazil Bolsonaro
Brazil Bolsonaro (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro remained hospitalized with abdominal pain Saturday and was expected to be transferred by medical aircraft from northeastern Brazil to the capital Brasilia, doctors told journalists.

Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized Friday morning with abdominal pain while traveling in northeastern Brazil. The pain was caused by a bowel obstruction and was related to long-term effects of being stabb ed in the abdomen in September 2018, his doctors said.

Bolsonaro has been in and out of hospitals since the attack at a campaign event before Brazil’s 2018 presidential election. The conservative leader underwent several surgeries during his presidency from 2019-2022.

“After so many similar episodes over the past few years, I had gotten used to the pain and discomfort. But this time, even the doctors were surprised,” he said in a social media post Saturday, adding that a longtime physician told him it was “the most serious case since the attack.”

Bolsonaro also said he would likely undergo another surgery. Earlier on Saturday, doctors at Rio Grande Hospital in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte told journalists he was stable and not in need of emergency surgery, said further procedures would depend on his recovery.

Doctors also that the transfer to Brasilia was requested by his family and would happen Saturday afternoon.

The far-right leader was admitted to a hospital in Santa Cruz, a small city in Rio Grande do Norte, and later transferred to a hospital in the state’s capital, Natal. Bolsonaro was set to start a trip across the region to promote his party’s right-wing agenda, eyeing next year’s presidential election, though he himself is barred from running. The region traditionally has been a political bastion of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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