Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro remains hospitalized with abdominal pain

Former President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at a demonstration demanding amnesty for those arrested for 2023's alleged coup attempt, in Sao Paulo, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini)

SAO PAULO — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was transferred Saturday by medical aircraft from northeastern Brazil to the capital Brasilia after being hospitalized with abdominal pain a day earlier.

Bolsonaro was hospitalized Friday morning while traveling in northeastern Brazil. The pain was caused by a bowel obstruction and was related to long-term effects of being stabbed in the abdomen in September 2018, his doctors said.

Bolsonaro has been in and out of hospitals since the attack at a campaign event before Brazil’s 2018 presidential election. The conservative leader underwent several surgeries during his presidency from 2019-2022.

“After so many similar episodes over the past few years, I had gotten used to the pain and discomfort. But this time, even the doctors were surprised,” he said in a social media post Saturday, adding that a longtime physician told him it was “the most serious case since the attack.”

Bolsonaro also said he would likely undergo another surgery. Earlier on Saturday, doctors at Rio Grande Hospital in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte told journalists he was stable and not in need of emergency surgery, said further procedures would depend on his recovery.

Doctors also that the transfer to Brasilia was requested by his family and would happen Saturday afternoon.

The far-right leader was admitted to a hospital in Santa Cruz, a small city in Rio Grande do Norte, and later transferred to a hospital in the state’s capital, Natal. Bolsonaro was set to start a trip across the region to promote his party’s right-wing agenda, eyeing next year’s presidential election, though he himself is barred from running. The region traditionally has been a political bastion of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.