Brazil’s Bolsonaro endorses son for presidency before more surgery

Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son’s 2026 presidential campaign on Thursday while out of jail for more surgery that has dogged him since a stabbing seven years ago.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 44, has said he wants to consolidate his father’s conservative legacy at the Oct. 4 vote, where he will try to unseat leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“With the commitment of not allowing the popular will to be silenced, I make the decision to nominate Flavio Bolsonaro as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2026,” Jair Bolsonaro said in a letter read out by Flavio in front of a hospital in the city of Brasilia where his father was being treated.

He was undergoing scheduled treatment for a hernia, his wife Michelle Bolsonaro said on social media.

Jair Bolsonaro, 70, has a history of hospitalizations and surgeries related to a stabbing he suffered while campaigning in 2018, including a 12-hour procedure for recurring intestinal issues in April this year.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized Bolsonaro to leave prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, for the surgery.

But police were ordered to stay outside his room, where computers and mobile phones were prohibited.

Deemed a flight risk following his conviction, the ex-president was detained in late November and began serving his 27-year sentence three days later.

News of the younger Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacy this month rattled financial markets. Investors had bet the ex-president would back a more seasoned candidate such as Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, his former infrastructure minister.