CNN
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Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalized after experiencing “severe abdominal pain,” his son Carlos said on X on Friday.
Carlos Bolsonaro said his father was assessed for adhesions in the area of his abdomen where he was stabbed in 2018 and was sedated for tests at a hospital in Santa Cruz.
He is now “awake and lucid,” Carlos said, and being flown by helicopter to a hospital with more resources in Natal, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte.
“Once again, I ask everyone to pray and hope that everything goes well. Soon, doctors will provide more details about what is happening,” Carlos said.
Bolsonaro, a polarizing far-right figure in Brazil, was elected president in 2018, months after his high-profile stabbing at a political rally.
In the years since, he has had several instances of hospitalization as a result of the injury.
Bolsonaro underwent surgery In January 2019 to remove a colostomy bag fitted after the stabbing. In 2022, he suffered an intestinal blockage. The former president was also admitted to a hospital in Florida in 2023 after experiencing abdominal discomfort.
Brazil’s Supreme Court recently ruled that Bolsonaro should stand trial on charges related to an alleged plot to overturn the 2022 election results, in which he has denied wrongdoing.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
