Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a hospital in the United States with severe abdominal pain a day after his supporters attacked Brasilia demanding military intervention against his defeat in October elections, according to local newspaper O Globo.
The conservative leader, who traveled to the US on December 30 to avoid the inauguration of his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is being treated at AdventHealth Celebration, a hospital located near Orlando, reported the newspaper without revealing the source of the information.
The American hospital did not return emails or calls. Bolsonaro aides in Brazil also did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
Bolsonaro has undergone multiple surgeries after being stabbed in the abdomen while campaigning in 2018. On Sunday he made a social media post, speaking out against the devastation of public buildings by his supporters in Brasilia, and returned to publish on Monday to refer to the achievements of his government.
Bolsonaro, hospitalized in Orlando for abdominal pain
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is admitted to a hospital in Orlando, in the United States, where he traveled on December 30, due to abdominal pain, a source close to the former president reported.
“He is hospitalized in Orlando. He is undergoing tests” due to abdominal pain, that source told EFE about the state of health of the former president, who left power on January 1, when the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva succeeded him.
According to the Brazilian press, the former head of state is at the AdventHealth Celebration in Orlando, in the state of Florida, although an operator of that clinic assured EFE that the far-right leader is not there.
The ex-governor’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, pointed out on social networks that her husband is “under observation” in the hospital for “abdominal discomfort.”
These gastric problems, according to Michelle, are a consequence of the “stab that Bolsonaro received” on September 6, 2018 during an electoral act in the city of Juiz de Fora, and for which he had to undergo surgery several times.
As a consequence of this attack, the retired Army captain has also suffered digestive system problems that have forced him to be hospitalized on various occasions during his tenure, which began in January 2019 and ended on December 31, 2022.
One of the last times he was hospitalized was in January of last year, although this time it was not necessary to operate and the intestinal obstruction that he suffered from was undone with the passage of a probe.
Bolsonaro left Brazil on December 30, two days before the inauguration of Lula, whom he has not yet congratulated on his victory in the elections last October, and headed for Florida with no official plan to return to his country.
His hospitalization coincides with the frustrated coup attempt carried out on Sunday by thousands of his most radical followers in Brasilia, where they invaded and vandalized the headquarters of Parliament, the Presidency and the Supreme Court for four and a half hours.
Bolsonaro lukewarmly rejected the insurrection of his supporters and charged against Lula, who accused the now ex-governor of “stimulating” his supporters to attack Brazilian democracy.