April 13 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized Friday in relation to a 2018 wound from when he was stabbed during a campaign rally ahead of his election.
“Hello friends, I’m at the Rio Grande hospital here in Natal. Yesterday, I received emergency treatment at the hospital in Santa Cruz, Rio Grande do Norte,” Bolsonaro said in a video message on social media on Saturday.
“There’s a very good chance I’ll be taken to Brasilia to continue treatment and possible surgery. I would like to thank all the doctors and nurses at these two hospitals for their attentive care.”
Bolsonaro, 70, later shared video footage of him walking out of the hospital and waving to a large crowd of cheering supporters. Attached to him was some sort of tubing to the nasal area of his face.
His son, Carlos Bolsonaro, said Sunday that the former president was undergoing his “seventh life-threatening surgery” after the alleged assassination attempt.
Jair Bolsonaro served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2023, winning office on a far-right platform after nearly three decades in Congress. A former army captain, he campaigned as an anti-establishment figure promising to stamp out corruption and revive the economy.
But his presidency was fraught with criticism of his weakening of environmental protections, especially in the Amazon, where deforestation surged under his watch. He was also criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his close relationship with President Donald Trump during his first term in office.
In 2022, Bolsonaro lost re-election to former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a narrow runoff. He refused to immediately concede and questioned the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system without evidence.
He now faces several investigations, including probes into his conduct after the election and his alleged role in encouraging an alleged 2023 coup attempt by his supporters who rioted in Brasília after losing the 2022 election.
Last month, Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously decided there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Bolsonaro for the alleged coup attempt.