Sharjah24 - AFP: Six years after being stabbed in the stomach, Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former president of Brazil, had to cancel a campaign tour due to a severe intestinal blockage on Friday. This was his latest health issue, and he was taken to a hospital.
The 70-year-old, who is seeking to make a political comeback even as he faces a criminal trial, started feeling "unbearable abdominal pain" at a political event Friday in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, a senior member of his Liberal Party said.
He was brought to a hospital where he was "stabilized," according to right-wing senator Rogerio Marinho, then flown by helicopter to a bigger facility in the state capital, Natal.
Bolsonaro "remains under observation and will spend the night in hospital," Luiz Roberto Fonseca, medical director of the Rio Grande hospital, told a news conference late Friday.
Surgeon Helio Barreto added that "for the moment, no surgery is planned", adding that the ex-president had seen "improvement" with "decreased pain".
Television footage had earlier shown Bolsonaro walking to the helicopter, with evident discomfort.
Bolsonaro has had recurring health problems since September 2018, when an attacker stabbed the then-candidate at a presidential campaign rally in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
He lost some 40 percent of his blood and underwent emergency surgery after the attack perpetrated by a man later declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
He went on to win that election, serving a single term until 2022 when he lost a runoff to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"Thank God, my condition is stable and I am recovering, without fever. The clinical progress is good," Bolsonaro wrote on social network X on Friday.
His message was accompanied by a photo of him in a hospital bed giving a thumbs up, with a tube up his nose and electrodes on his bare chest.
"The cause was a complication in the small intestine, a consequence of the multiple surgeries I needed to undergo after the attack in 2018," he added.
Trump of the Tropics
The former president has undergone at least four surgeries since his stabbing, including the placement and subsequent removal of a colostomy bag, which made him prone to intestinal disorders.
Bolsonaro, who is hoping to make a comeback in the 2026 presidential elections, was set to start a political tour of Rio Grande do Norte on Friday.
He has been barred from holding public office until 2030 after he was found guilty of falsely casting doubt on the credibility of Brazil's electoral system.
He has been hoping the ban will be overturned to give him a shot at a return to power in the style of his idol, US President Donald Trump.
But those plans were dimmed last month when Bolsonaro was ordered to stand trial on charges of plotting a coup against Lula.
If convicted, the former army captain risks a jail term of more than 40 years, and political banishment.
Dubbed the "Trump of the Tropics," Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as leader of Latin America's biggest economy.
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