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Bolsonaro’s operation addressed a painful double hernia; doctors anticipate five to seven days of hospitalisation.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a prison sentence for an attempted coup, underwent a “successful” surgery for an inguinal hernia, his wife has said.

The 70-year-old former leader left prison on Wednesday for the first time since late November to undergo the procedure on Thursday at the DF Star Hospital in Brasilia.

“Successful surgery completed, without complications. Now we wait for him to wake up from anaesthesia,” his wife Michelle announced in an Instagram post.

Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since November for an attempted coup. He was granted court permission to leave prison after federal police doctors confirmed that he needed the procedure.

Doctors say Bolsonaro’s double hernia causes him pain. The former leader, who was in power between 2019 and 2022, has gone through several other surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018. He was also diagnosed with skin cancer recently.

Doctors for the far-right president from 2019 to 2022 anticipated that his hospitalisation would last between five and seven more days.

The surgery was to repair an inguinal hernia – a protrusion in the groin area due to a tear in the abdominal muscles.

“It is a complex surgery,” Dr Claudio Birolini said on Wednesday. “But it is a standardised … scheduled surgery, so we expect the procedure to be carried out without major complications.”

After the operation, doctors are to assess whether Bolsonaro can undergo an additional procedure: blockage of the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm, for recurrent hiccups, Birolini said.

Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced Bolsonaro to prison in September after he was found guilty of having led a scheme to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office and to retain power.

Bolsonaro has maintained his innocence, declaring he was a victim of political persecution.

He has been confined to a small room with a minibar, air conditioning and a television at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia.

Succession

Early on Thursday, his eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, told reporters before the surgery that his father had written a letter confirming he had appointed him as the Liberal Party’s presidential candidate in next year’s election. Flavio announced on December 5 that he would challenge Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, as the party’s candidate.

The senator read the letter to journalists, and his office released a reproduction of it to the media.

“He represents the continuation of the path of prosperity that I began well before becoming president, as I believe we must restore the responsibility of leading Brazil with justice, resolve and loyalty to the aspirations of the Brazilian people,” Bolsonaro said in the handwritten letter, dated Thursday.

According to Flavio, the letter sought to clarify any “doubt” about his father’s support for his presidential bid.

“Many people say they had not heard it from his own mouth or had not seen a letter signed by him. I believe this clears up any shadow of doubt,” he said after reading the letter.

The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat.

Ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday apologized to key military commanders who are standing trial for their involvement in his failed martial law bid, defending their action as the result of compliance with his orders.

Yoon made the remarks at a martial law trial against the commanders at the military court in central Seoul, which he attended as a witness. Defendants included Kwak Jong-keun, former chief of the Army Special Warfare Command; Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command; and Lee Jin-woo, former head of the Capital Defense Command.

“It is pitiful to see senior military and police officials whom I know appear at the court,” Yoon said.

“I feel very sorry as they are people who did what they have to do upon my decision,” he said, adding he prayed late into the night after returning to the detention center following trials.

During Thursday’s trial, Yoon reiterated that he had no intention of maintaining martial law for an extended period and that the declaration was aimed only at exposing the “blatant” behavior of the then main opposition party.

“The martial law was imposed to raise an alarm bell to the public on the country’s perilous situation,” the former president said. “I was thinking that it would last half a day, or a day at the most.”

Yoon said he did not instruct any official, other than former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, to review or prepare for the imposition of martial law.

The then opposition party’s drive to impeach the state auditor chief on the night before the martial law imposition became the “decisive trigger” for him to instruct for preparations for martial law, he claimed.

Speaking on a recent reshuffle of officials dispatched to the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Yoon said institutions pivotal to national security should not be neutralized due to their involvement in the martial law bid.

Yoon’s appearance at the military court, located within the defense ministry compound that also houses the presidential office, marked his first visit to his former office compound in about a year. It also came on his 65th birthday.

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Former leader denies charges over alleged diversion of funds meant for Indigenous development projects

A Bolivian judge has ordered former President Luis Arce to remain in detention for five months while prosecutors investigate allegations he embezzled millions of dollars from a fund meant for Indigenous communities.

Arce, who left office just a month ago, appeared before Judge Elmer Laura in a virtual hearing on Friday, two days after his arrest on the streets of La Paz.

The judge rejected appeals from Arce’s legal team for his release and ruled he must await trial in one of the capital’s largest prisons, citing the seriousness of charges that “directly affect state assets and resources allocated to vulnerable sectors”.

No trial date has been set.

The accusations centre on Arce’s time as economy minister under former President Evo Morales between 2006 and 2017, when authorities say he oversaw the diversion of approximately $700m from a state fund created to channel natural gas revenues into development projects for Indigenous peoples and peasant farmers.

Interior minister of the new right-wing government, Marco Antonio Oviedo, has described the 62-year-old former president as “the principal person responsible” for approving transfers of large sums into personal accounts of government officials for projects that were never completed.

Arce maintained his innocence during Friday’s hearing, saying he had no personal involvement in managing the fund and dismissing the case as politically motivated. “I’m a scapegoat,” he told the judge. “The accusations are politically motivated.”

His defence lawyers had requested his release on health grounds, noting his previous battle with kidney cancer.

However, Judge Laura denied the appeal and exceeded the prosecution’s request of three months’ detention by ordering five months in a state prison rather than a juvenile facility.

The case first emerged almost a decade ago in 2015 when the Indigenous fund was shut down amid corruption allegations, but investigations stalled during the years of Movement Toward Socialism governance.

The probe was revived after conservative President Rodrigo Paz took office last month, ending nearly two decades of left-wing rule in Bolivia.

Paz campaigned on promises to root out corruption at the highest levels as Bolivia grapples with its worst economic crisis in 40 years. His vice president, Edmand Lara, celebrated Arce’s arrest on social media, declaring that “everyone who has stolen from this country will return every last cent”.

Former ministers in Arce’s administration have condemned the arrest as an abuse of power and political persecution against the Movement Toward Socialism party.

If convicted, Arce faces up to six years in prison.