Jair Bolsonaro backs son’s Brazil presidential bid, undergoes hernia surgery

Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro endorsed his son Flavio’s 2026 presidential bid on Thursday in a statement from a hospital where he underwent a scheduled hernia operation that doctors said went smoothly.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized Bolsonaro to leave prison, where he is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup, for the surgery. Police were ordered to stay outside his room where computers and mobile phones were prohibited.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, 44, has said he wants to consolidate his father’s conservative legacy at the October 4 vote when he will try to unseat leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“With the commitment of not allowing the popular will to be silenced, I make the decision to nominate Flavio Bolsonaro as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2026,” Jair Bolsonaro said in a letter read out by Flavio in front of a hospital in the city of Brasilia where his father was being treated.