Brazil’s ex-President Bolsonaro is in intensive care with pneumonia, hospital says

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has pneumonia and is receiving treatment in an intensive care unit, a hospital in the capital, Brasilia, said Friday.

Earlier in the day, Bolsonaro’s eldest son Flávio said on X that his father was being transferred from prison to the hospital after waking up with chills and vomiting.

“I ask for prayers that it not be anything serious,” Flávio wrote. He has said he will run for president this year, and recent polls show him and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva almost tied.

Jair Bolsonaro, 70, is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup, after he was convicted last year by a panel of Supreme Court justices.

He was admitted to the hospital after experiencing high fever, low oxygen, sweating and chills, DF Star Hospital said in a statement. Exams confirmed bronchopneumonia, a type of pneumonia, likely caused by aspiration.

“He is currently hospitalized in the intensive care unit, receiving IV antibiotics and non-invasive clinical support,” the hospital said.

Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times since being stabbed at a campaign event before the 2018 presidential election.

In January, police escorted him to the same hospital for brain tests after he fell from his bed.

Bolsonaro and several of his allies were convicted in September of attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat. The plot included plans to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and de Moraes. There was also a plan to encourage an insurrection in early 2023.

Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges that include leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.

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