JUST IN: Brazil’s president hospitalised for intestinal obstruction

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was urgently hospitalized early Monday morning for treatment of a probable intestinal obstruction, AFP reported quoting local media.

Bolsonaro, 66, who has been in power since 2019, was taken to Vila Nova Star hospital in Sao Paulo, according to TV Globo and several media outlets.

The obstruction could be related to a stabbing injury Mr. Bolsonaro suffered in 2018 as he campaigned for president.

Recall that the Brazilian president was hospitalized around July 2021 for the same problem.

The doctor who oversaw the surgeries after the 2018 stabbing determined that Mr. Bolsonaro should travel to São Paulo for additional tests.

Based on the outcome of those tests, the president might undergo “an emergency surgery,” The New York Times reported in 2021 quoting a statement from his office.

Bolsonaro himself on July 14 2021 described the stabbing as an assassination attempt as he posted a photo of himself on Instagram.

He could be seen lying shirtless on a hospital bed with a nasal tube and an IV in his arm.

“One more challenge resulting from an assassination attempt,” the caption in the photo read. “It was a cruel attack not just against me but against our democracy.”