Brazil’s First Lady denies Bolsonaro hospital visit

First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro on Friday denied her husband went to the hospital to treat abdominal pains.

Newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo reported that President Jair Bolsonaro visited the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasília on Thursday night after feeling abdominal pains. The president has made several such visits, including surgeries, over the last four years, after he was stabbed in September 2018, while running for president.

The newspaper cited “several” [unnamed] government sources as confirming the story, but published no photos or documents. The president’s office did not provide comment.

The first lady used her Instagram account to call the story “fake,” and thanked a right-wing blog for retracting its article on the story.

Early in 2019, at the beginning of Mr. Bolsonaro’s administration, the health status of the president was all-too transparent, with his son Carlos publishing daily photos of his father eating, signing documents, and even meeting with cabinet ministers while in hospital.

Later, the approach changed, with no photos of hospital visits or presidential medical bulletins. The president even granted top secret status to his own vaccination records, and to this day it is unknown whether or not the president has taken a Covid vaccine. 

In 2020, Covid tests taken by the president were also made secret, and it took a Supreme Court decision to make them public knowledge. The tests were negative and two of them were taken using codenames.

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