Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalized, according to his wife Michelle Bolsonaro.
He was admitted on Monday for abdominal “discomfort” related to injuries from a 2018 knife attack during a political rally, Michelle Bolsonaro wrote in a post on her official Instagram, the CNN reports.
An ally of the former president told CNN Brasil that the former President is hospitalized in the Orlando, Florida area, and that he had been feeling discomfort on Sunday night.
The news comes as Brazil reels from Sunday’s political violence in capital Brasilia, which saw hundreds of Bolsonaro supporters storm the seats of power, trashing offices and drawing strong condemnation from the international community.
Bolsonaro had already left Brazil for the United States on Dec. 30, according to CNN Brasil – just two days before the inauguration of his successor, President-elect Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Five civil servants were authorized to accompany him to Miami between January 1 and 30, 2023.
The former leader has been hospitalized several times over the years due to his injury. The stabbing incident took place during his 2018 campaign, as Bolsonaro was led through a crowd on the shoulders of supporters in Juiz de Fora, a city in the southern state of Minas Gerais.
Bolsonaro’s son Flavio Bolsonaro tweeted at the time that his father’s wounds “reached part of his liver, lung and intestine” and that he lost a lot of blood.
In January 2019, Bolsonaro underwent surgery to remove a colostomy bag fitted after he was stabbed.
He was again hospitalized in July 2021 after feeling abdominal pain and suffering persistent hiccups for over than a week.
This is a developing story.
