Bolsonaro's Wife Says He's Hospitalized in Florida

Former president left Brazil before successor took office
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2023 4:59 PM CST
Pain Sent Bolsonaro to Florida Hospital, His Wife Says
Alessandra Vieira, a Brazilian Cape Canaveral resident who runs a Brazilian food business and was in the area making a delivery, displays the homemade caxinhas she brought Monday to offer former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, outside the house where he is staying in Reunion, Fla.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A day after his supporters attacked government buildings in Brazil, the wife of Jair Bolsonaro said the former president is in a hospital in Florida. Michelle Bolsonaro posted Monday on Instagram that her husband was under observation after suffering abdominal pain, the BBC reports. Jair Bolsonaro was admitted Monday to a hospital near Orlando; he was reported to have left Brazil for Florida on Dec. 30, before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as president. Lula blamed Bolsonaro's for Sunday's violence, in which protesters stormed Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court building, and presidential offices.

Bolsonaro was stabbed during an attack on the campaign trail in 2018, per Reuters, and has been in the hospital at other times in recent years with pain and blockages. His doctor said this intestinal blockage isn't serious and probably won't require surgery. Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro called for Bolsonaro to be sent back to Brazil. The US shouldn't provide refuge to an "authoritarian who has inspired domestic terrorism," Castro told CNN. (More Jair Bolsonaro stories.)

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