Brazil’s Bolsonaro shares recovery footage from intensive care after 12-hour surgery

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro shared footage on social media on Tuesday of his recovery in hospital where he remains in intensive care following bowel surgery.

The far-right leader, who has started physiotherapy, shared video of walking through the corridors of Brasilia’s DF Star Hospital with medical support.

On Sunday, Bolsonaro underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove intestinal adhesions and reconstruct the abdominal wall. It was the sixth procedure related to long-term effects of being stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in September 2018.

Doctors at the hospital issued a statement Tuesday saying there is no estimated discharge date from intensive care, and that Bolsonaro should not receive visitors.

Bolsonaro said earlier on social media that he was only having direct contact with his family and the medical team to avoid physical complications.

A supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro prays outside DF Star hospital where he had abdominal surgery in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

The latest surgery was the “most complex” procedure since the stabbing with a “very delicate and prolonged postsurgery,” doctors told journalists on Monday.

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

On Friday, he was admitted with severe abdominal pain 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. On Saturday, his family requested his transfer to Brasilia.

He had been preparing for a trip across the north east to promote his Liberal 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.

The former president is expected to stand trial in the next few months at Brazil’s Supreme Court for allegedly attempting to stage a coup in January, 2023, with riots led by his supporters in Brasilia.