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

RIO DE JANEIRO — 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.

One of his doctors, Brasil Caiado, told journalists that the 70-year-old’s medical situation was serious.

“Pneumonia in patients over 70 is always serious because it can progress to septicemia, since the bacteria can normally enter the bloodstream and cause an even more severe condition,” Caiado said.

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

“I ask for prayers that it not be anything serious,” Flávio wrote. Flávio Bolsonaro 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 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.

Caiado, a cardiologist, said that it was unlikely that Bolsonaro would return to prison in the next few days because the treatment is intravenous and has to be done in a hospital setting.

The embattled ex-leader was transferred to a larger cell in January, but his relatives have repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to allow Bolsonaro to carry out his sentence under house arrest. They allege he is being mistreated and receiving insufficient medical attention.

On Friday, Carlos Bolsonaro — one of the former president’s sons — said on X “the system, literally and insistently, (is) trying to kill” his father.

The Court has refuted those claims and refused to allow Bolsonaro to serve his sentence at home.

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 Supreme Court Justice Alexandre 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.

His trial received renewed international attention after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Brazil, citing the judicial proceedings against his ally, which Trump called a “witch hunt.” Many of those taxes have since been removed.