‘Trump of the Tropics’ critically injured in Brazil rally stabbing
Favourite to win the first round of voting in presidential elections may be kept off campaign trail
BRAZIL’S presidential election was plunged into uncertainty yesterday after the divisive frontrunner was stabbed at a campaign rally.
Jair Bolsonaro is expected to be in intensive care for at least a week, and could need two months to fully recover.
The attack on Mr Bolsonaro, 63, who is known as the “Tropical Trump” for his hardline views, is the latest in a year of political violence as South America’s biggest economy gears up for an unpredictable, contentious and occasionally bloody election next month.
Just as his tough talk has divided the country, so too the stabbing. Allies of the far-right candidate claimed it would strengthen Mr Bolsonaro, highlighting a message that crime was running unfettered; critics said that his own explosive rhetoric was to blame.
Mr Bolsonaro had been raised aloft by supporters as they carried him through a crowd in Juiz de Fora, in south-eastern Brazil, on Thursday when a person lunged at him, according to a video of the attack.
One of his sons said the knife punctured Mr Bolsonaro’s liver, a lung and intestines. “Unfortunately it was more serious than we hoped,” said Flavio Bolsonaro. “He lost a lot of blood, reaching the hospital… almost dead... his condition now seems stable. Please pray!”
Luiz Henrique Borsato, the surgeon who treated him, said Mr Bolsonaro suffered serious internal bleeding. He added that he was in a serious but stable condition and would remain in intensive care for at least seven days.
No one knows how long the injuries will keep him off the campaign trail, but his vice-presidential running mate, retired general Hamilton Mourao, said Mr Bolsonaro will “come out of this process stronger than he went in”.
In a video shot by a senator who visited him in hospital, Mr Bolsonaro thanked his medical team in a weak and scratchy voice, and said: “I never did harm to anyone.”
Polls put Mr Bolsonaro’s support at about 22 per cent. That puts him on course to win the first round of voting for the small Social Liberal Party, but his polarising message – including derogatory and inflammatory comments about women, blacks and gays – has repulsed enough voters to suggest he would lose a subsequent run-off.
The knife attack is merely the latest twist in an already contentious election campaign.
Mr Bolsonaro’s popularity is surpassed only by that of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former president who has been barred from running while he serves a jail sentence for corruption.
Earlier this year, assailants shot at buses hired by his campaign and the attack came days after a councilwoman was shot dead in Rio de Janeiro.
Police said they arrested the suspect behind Mr Bolsonaro’s stabbing within seconds, before the candidate’s supporters could turn on him.
They named him as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, 40, but said he had offered no motive.
“Our agents there said the attacker said he was ‘on a mission from God’,” said Luis Boudens, president of the National Federation of Federal Police.
“Their impression is that they were not dealing with a mentally stable person.” A second suspect was arrested and then released but remains under investigation.
Politicians of all colours were quick to condemn the assault.
President Michel Temer said: “It is intolerable that, living in a democratic state of law, it’s not possible to have an orderly campaign.”