Health issues could become Bolsonaro’s excuse to pull out of election

President Jair Bolsonaro was admitted to a high-profile private hospital in São Paulo on Monday morning to treat an intestinal obstruction after feeling unwell on Sunday and cutting his end-of-year vacations short. Doctors have installed a nasogastric tube in an attempt to remove the blockage, but are also evaluating the potential need for surgery. 

If he were to go under the knife, it would be the fifth time Mr. Bolsonaro has undergone surgery on his intestines since September 2018, when he was stabbed in the abdomen while on the campaign trail. In each of these instances, the president and his closest supporters have used these operations for political gain, attempting to garner sympathy from the public at large and spread theories about what Mr. Bolsonaro believes to have been the political motivations of his 2018 stabbing.

Mr. Bolsonaro’s assailant, Adélio Bispo de Oliveira, was a former member of the left-wing Brazilian Socialism and Freedom Party (Psol), but was not politically active at the time of the attack. Police reports found that he acted alone, and suffered from severe mental disorders. Still, senior cabinet members have been instructed to drag up the 2018 stabbing incident whenever they comment on the president’s most...