Brazil's presidential frontrunner undergoes emergency surgery after stabbing

Populist candidate Bolsonaro was attacked on the campaign trail on September 6 by a left-wing assailant

Brazil’s right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was seriously hurt when he was stabbed by a left-wing activist on the campaign trail last week, underwent another round of emergency surgery after an obstruction was discovered in his small intestine, according to the Sao Paulo hospital where he is being treated.

An MRI “showed a clogging obstruction of the small intestine,” requiring “surgical intervention,” the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital said.

The operation went well, according to the Brazilian press.

Bolsonaro, the leading candidate in the presidential race, was stabbed in the abdomen on September 6 during a rally in Juiz de Fora, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. The first round of the elections will take place October 7.

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The stabbing caused significant damage and massive loss of blood, according to officials. Bolsonaro has spent the past week in intensive care and under close supervision.

“My father is undergoing new surgery,” one of his sons, Flavio Bolsonaro, himself a candidate for Senate, wrote on Twitter. “Please continue to pray, he is still in serious condition.”

A former captain in the Brazilian army, Bolsonaro is polling at 24 percent, well ahead of his main challenger, the center-left Ciro Gomes, at 13%, according to a poll published Monday by the Datafolha Institute.

Last week, Bolsonaro was catapulted to the top of polls ahead of the first round, after an electoral court barred jailed former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from running.

Lula, 72, is serving a 12-year sentence after he was convicted of accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe.

Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro grimaces right after being stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. (AP/Raysa Leite)

Bolsonaro, often called Brazil’s Trump, has vowed to move the country’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem and has said he will close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia.

Despite being a long-serving member of Congress, Bolsonaro has successfully presented himself as an outsider, untouched by the corruption scandals engulfing so much of the political elite.