Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro grimaces after being stabbed in
the stomach during a campaign rally in Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
Photograph: Raysa Leite/AP
Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right frontrunner in next month’s Brazilian
presidential election, is in a serious condition in hospital after being
stabbed while campaigning.
Bolsonaro was taken to hospital in the town of Juiz de Fora, about
125 miles (200km) north of Rio de Janeiro, after he was stabbed by a man
who rushed up to him while he was being carried through a crowd on the
shoulders of a supporter.
He was in a serious but stable condition after injuries to his
abdomen, surgeons at the Santa Casa de Misericórdia hospital said.
Bolsonaro’s son Flávio – himself a candidate for the Brazilian Senate
- tweeted that his father was “almost dead” when he arrived at
hospital, having lost a lot of blood.
Flavio Bolsonaro, son of presidential candidate Jair
Bolsonaro leaves the Santa Casa hospital, where his father was
hospitalized. Photograph: Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
In an especially unpredictable election campaign, Bolsonaro has polarised opinion with
homophobic comments, calls for looser gun laws, attacks on the left and
praise for Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, which tortured
thousands of its opponents and executed hundreds more. He faces trial
before the supreme court for speech that prosecutors said incited hate
and rape.
Yet rising violent crime, anger over repeated corruption scandals and
an efficient social media operation have helped him build support, and
he is second in the polls to ex-president Lula, who has been barred from running because of a criminal conviction for corruption.
A supporter of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro
pushes a woman during a protest after he was stabbed on Paulista avenue.
Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
Videos
shared on social media showed the moment Bolsonaro was attacked. He can
be seen waving to the crowd when he suddenly clutches his abdomen and
cries out in pain before falling backwards into the arms of those around
him. O Globo newspaper reported that he was wearing a bulletproof vest, but was wounded just below it.
A police spokesman confirmed that the alleged attacker – named as
Adélio Bispo de Oliveira – was in custody. Local media said he was
beaten up by Bolsonaro supporters.
The G1 news website printed a leaked extract from the suspect’s
police interview in which he said he had been ordered by God to carry
out the attack.
“The Minas Gerais police reacted rapidly. Uniformed officers who were
there arrested the attacker,” said Major Flavio Santiago, a police
spokesman.
Jair Bolsonaro greets supporters as he gets a shoulder
ride in Brasilia’s Ceilandia neighbourhood on the previous day.
Photograph: Eraldo Peres/AP
Santiago said attacks on high profile candidates were rare. “In Brazil we don’t have the culture of this type of attack, where someone can break through security and attack a candidate,” he said.
However, violence against politicians has risen in recent months. In
March, Marielle Franco, a Rio de Janeiro city councillor for the
Socialism and Freedom party, was murdered along with her driver, Anderson Gomes. That same month, two buses in a campaign caravan for former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were hit by gunshots. Lula was not with the convoy at the time.
National Social Liberal Party presidential candidate Jair
Bolsonaro talks to the press at the Madureira market in Rio de Janeiro,
27 August. Photograph: Silvia Izquierdo/AP
Analysts said that the incident could feeds Bolsonaro’s narrative that Brazil is in chaos and needs a firm hand to steady it.
Paulo
Baía, a professor of political science at the Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro, said the attack would further polarise the election
campaign.
“The attack strengthens Bolsonaro and practically guarantees him a
place in the second round,” he said. “The campaign will be about
passion. Any candidate who tries to use rationale will not win voters.
The attack on Bolsonaro messes with all the political forces in the
country, it is the most important event in the campaign from diverse
points of view.”
Augusto Heleno, a retired military general and ally of Bolsonaro,
described the attack as “an act of barbarity that hurts democracy”, and
said Bolsonaro might not be able to continue his intense campaigning
rhythm. “He has to recover, the consequences were serious,” Heleno said.
“He will not be able to campaign in the way he has been doing, in the
arms of the people, on top of sound trucks, it will be difficult in the
short term.”
Bolsonaro’s political rivals were also quick to denounce the attack.
Fernando Haddad, who is likely to replace Lula as the Workers party
presidential candidate, said the stabbing was a “shame” and a “horror”.
Marina Silva, an environmentalist and centrist candidate, said: “The
violence against the candidate Jair Bolsonaro is inadmissible and is a
double attack: against his physical integrity and against democracy.”
Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s successor as president, caused some anger when
she suggested that Bolsonaro’s extremist views could have provoked the
attack. “When you plant hate, you harvest thunderstorms,” she said in an
interview with the Folha de S Paulo newspaper.
During the Congress session that began Rousseff’s 2016 impeachment proceedings, Bolsonaro dedicated his vote
in favour of her suspension to a notorious dictatorship-era torturer.
Rousseff was a member of the armed resistance to military rule and was
herself tortured.
Bolsonaro recently said that members of her Workers’ party should be shot.
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