BRASILIA, March 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a military hospital in Brasilia Monday to undergo tests after feeling unwell, local press reported.
Bolsonaro, 67, who was stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign leaving him with repeat health problems, was absent from an evening event organized by the Republican Party which he had been slated to attend.
“I’m sure the president is fine, it’s just some extra exams he’s doing, that’s why he’s not here,” party chairman Marcos Pereira said.
First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who attended the event, said her husband “is fine,” and Minister of Communication Fabio Faria reported that the president simply felt “discomfort,” according to the G1 news site.
Bolsonaro will remain overnight in the hospital, the publication said.
Culture Secretary Mario Frias meanwhile wrote on Twitter that he was “praying for the president.”
In January, Bolsonaro was hospitalized for two days in Sao Paulo with a partially blocked intestine.
The president, in power since 2019, was also admitted to hospital in mid-July with the same problem, staying for four days although he did not undergo surgery.
In September 2018, a month before the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, an attacker stabbed Bolsonaro in the abdomen at a campaign rally in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, puncturing his intestine multiple times.
Bolsonaro lost some 40 percent of his blood and underwent emergency surgery in the near-fatal incident, which was carried out by a man later declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
Due to the stab wound, the far-right leader has undergone at least four surgeries, including the placement and subsequent removal of a colostomy bag, which made him more prone to intestinal disorders.
He has also undergone other unrelated procedures during his presidency, including surgery to remove a kidney stone.
Bolsonaro, a Covid-19 skeptic who campaigned against quarantine measures because he believed them too damaging to the economy and who reports that heis not vaccinated, contracted the virus in July 2020, coming down with mild symptoms.
The president is aiming for reelection next October, when he will most likely face off against leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro would lose the elections in the second round with 34 percent of the vote against 55 percent for Lula, according to a survey published last week by the consulting firm Datafolha. — NNN-AGENCIES
