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RIO DE JANEIRO – Jair Bolsonaro, one of the main presidential candidates in Brazil, was stabbed Thursday during a campaign and underwent surgery.
The officials and his son said the candidate was in a stable state, although the son also said that Bolsonaro had suffered serious blood loss.
Bolsonaro, whose right-wing platform includes crackdown on crime in the largest nation of Latin America, was stabbed with a knife on the lower part of his belly. At the time of the attack, Bolsonaro was on the shoulders of a supporter, staring at the crowd and raising his left hand.
After the attack, he is seen tanning and then disappears. Other videos show supporters carrying him in a car.
Police spokesman Flavio Santiago confirmed to the Associated Press that Bolsonaro had been stabbed and his attacker arrested.
Santiago said Bolsonaro was taken to a hospital in Juiz de Fora, a town about 200 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro, and was in good condition.
Santiago said the attacker was identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira. He added that the suspect had been beaten by supporters of Bolsonaro after the attack. The man was arrested in 2013 for another assault, police said. More information about de Oliveira was not immediately available.
In a statement, the hospital in Bolsonaro said he was in surgery but did not give details.
Bolsonaro's son, Flavio Bolsonaro, initially posted on Twitter that the wound was superficial and that his father was fine. However, an hour later, he posted another tweet saying the injury was "worse than we thought".
Flavio stated that the sting had affected parts of his father's liver, lungs and intestines and that he had lost a lot of blood.
He arrived at the hospital "almost dead," writes Flavio. "His condition seems now stabilized. Please, pray.
A statement from the federal police said the candidate had bodyguards. In the videos, Bolsonaro does not seem to wear a protective vest. These measures are rare for candidates in Brazil.
"This episode is sad," President Michel Temer told reporters in Brasilia. "We will not have a rule of law if we have intolerance."
Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is second in the polls to imprison former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, prevented from running but continues to appeal.
Despite being a member of Congress since 1991, Bolsonaro presents himself as a stranger ready to overthrow the institution.
Although he has good followers, Bolsonaro is also a deeply polarizing character. He has been fined and even charged for making derogatory statements about women, blacks and gays.
He talks nostalgically about the 1964-85 military dictatorship in the country and promised to fill his government with current and former military leaders. His candidate for the vice-presidency is a retired general.
Earlier this week, Bolsonaro said in a campaign that he wanted to fire on corrupt members of the Left Workers Party, which made him a candidate for Silva. The comment provoked an immediate reprimand from the Attorney General, who asked Bolsonaro to explain this comment.
Other candidates quickly denounced the stabbings.
"Politics is through dialogue and persuasion, never by hate," tweeted Gerado Alckmin, former governor of Sao Paulo, who launched negative ads on Bolsonaro.
Fernando Haddad, who should take Da Silva's place on the Workers Party ticket, described the attack as absurd and regrettable.
The attack comes at a time when rhetoric is becoming more intense and sometimes violent, linked to campaigns and candidates.
In March, while Da Silva was on a campaign tour in southern Brazil before his imprisonment, shots were fired at buses in his caravan. No one was injured and da Silva, who is in prison for a conviction for corruption, was not in the vehicles that were hit.
Also in March, Marielle Franco, a black adviser in Rio de Janeiro, was shot dead with her driver after attending an event on the empowerment of black women.
It is unclear how the attack on Bolsonaro could turn a presidential race into the air with the leader, Da Silva, in prison. In many ways, the incident feeds Bolsonaro's story that Brazil is in chaos and needs a strong hand to stabilize it.
"It is likely that Bolsonaro will use the attack to argue that his opponents are desperate, that they have no other way to stop him," said Mauricio Santoro, professor of political science at State University. from Rio de Janeiro.
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Associated Press editors Marcelo Silva de Sousa in Rio de Janeiro and Sarah DiLorenzo in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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