SAO PAULO – Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was released from the hospital on Sunday, three weeks following surgery for a bowel obstruction.

The medical staff at the DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, reported that Bolsonaro had left intensive care on Wednesday, where he spent the subsequent days recuperating before being discharged on Sunday. His health is currently stable, and he has commenced a liquid diet, according to his doctors.

Bolsonaro appeared stiff and serious as he made his way outside. However, his demeanor lightened as he greeted an enthusiastic crowd of supporters waving Brazilian flags and capturing the moment on their phones. “Hallelujah!” some exclaimed.

“This cap goes to our President,” said Ronaldo de Barretos, a supporter outside the hospital showing off a baseball cap that bore Bolsonaro’s campaign slogan — “God, homeland, family and freedom.”

Bolsonaro was admitted with severe abdominal pain to a hospital in Santa Cruz, a small city in Rio Grande do Norte, on April 11 and transferred to a hospital in the state’s capital, Natal. His family later requested his transfer to Brasilia.

The right-wing leader’s intestinal obstruction is related to a stabbing injury he suffered in September 2018 as he campaigned for president. He has been in and out of hospitals since the attack and underwent multiple surgeries during his presidency, from 2019-2022.

Doctors described this latest surgery last month, his sixth, as the most difficult.

Before undergoing surgery, Bolsonaro had been preparing for a trip across northeast Brazil to promote his Liberal Party’s right-wing agenda, eyeing next year’s presidential election in Brazil, though he himself is barred from running. The region traditionally has been a political bastion of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro 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.

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