Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro remains in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon after experiencing severe abdominal pain that indicated a necessary intervention as a result of a socialist attempting to stab him to death in 2018.
Bolsonaro, a self-identified conservative, won the Brazilian presidency in a hotly contested race in 2018. In September of that year, a socialist identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira ran up to Bolsonaro during a campaign event and stabbed him in the abdomen, leaving him clinging to life. As the attack occurred during a highly publicized event, Bispo de Oliveira was caught on video.
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Bolsonaro’s attacker, a former member of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), told police that he had been “commanded by God” to kill Bolsonaro.
The attack resulted in life-long health problems for Bolsonaro as it significantly damaged his intestines, making him unable to process certain foods properly. The president has been hospitalized on multiple occasions throughout his term. He faces re-election this year.
Bolsonaro published a photo on his social media accounts from the hospital on Monday, explaining that he began to feel sick on Sunday afternoon and that, depending on the cause of the pain, he may have to endure another surgery. Doctors initially diagnosed Bolsonaro with an intestinal blockage, a recurring problem for the president in parts of his intestinal tract that were destroyed in the stabbing. He has undergone surgery six times to rebuild his intestines since the 2018 attack. Bolsonaro explicitly attributed the hospitalization to aftereffects of the stabbing in his message on Monday.
By Tuesday, reports indicated that he would not need surgical intervention, but neither doctors, nor the president offered any updates on when he may be allowed to leave the hospital. Bolsonaro posted a video on the Chinese-owned social media outlet Tiktok on Tuesday showing his doctor, Antonio Luiz Macedo, treating him. First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro also posted a photo on her social media accounts of the president walking down one of the hospital’s hallways, showing some apparent improvement in his condition. Doctors have updated that Bolsonaro is currently on a liquid diet.
Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro of Rio de Janeiro, the president’s son, said on Tuesday that the elder Bolsonaro will face dietary restrictions for the rest of his life, complicated by the fact that a president’s schedule often does not allow for a rigid meal routine.
“Things happen in a dynamic manner and he needs to keep changing his schedule, which makes it difficult to have breakfast, lunch, eat at night,” Bolsonaro explained. The senator added that his father no longer “has the luxury of doing many things he would like,” like eating cake, pizza, or strip steak.
Speaking to the Sao Paulo newspaper Estadao, intestinal medicine expert Dr. Marcelo Borba explained that much of the problem comes from scarring within the intestine in places where surgeons initially repaired the damage from the stabbing.
“He has these abrasions because he was very manipulated previously with inter-abdominal surgeries,” Borba told the newspaper. “In these cases, one has to keep a certain diet, for example, avoid food that can ferment, like milk, or that is too fibrous and difficult to digest, for example, vegetables and legumes.”
Borba noted that avoiding any further surgeries was key because these would create more scarring that makes it more difficult to pass food.
As with the last time Bolsonaro was hospitalized, in July, leftists online immediately began using his medical condition to attack him. Most prominently, his opponent in the 2018 election, the socialist Fernando Haddad, appeared to insinuate that Bolsonaro had fabricated his medical condition to distract from leftist outrage that he has allegedly not acted quickly enough in light of flooding in the northeast of the country.
“A convenient stomach ache and Bolsonaro’s contempt for the Northeast disappears from the news,” Haddad wrote on Tuesday.
Northeast Brazil is traditionally a socialist stronghold. In 2018, however, Bolsonaro managed to pry away a significant amount of support from Haddad’s Workers’ Party (PT) in the region, clinching the election. Haddad was a last-minute replacement for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former socialist president and founder of the PT who had intended to run before being convicted on corruption charges shortly before the election, disqualifying him from running again.
Since the 2018 election, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) – packed with Lula appointees – invalidated Lula’s conviction. Lula is expected to enter the 2022 race as a frontrunner even taking into consideration Bolsonaro’s incumbency.
“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed, or victory,” Bolsonaro said in August, referring to the 2022 election.
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