The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Brazilian Presidential Candidate Stabbed

Posted on | September 6, 2018 | Comments Off on Brazilian Presidential Candidate Stabbed

Breaking news:

Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been stabbed at a political rally in southeast Brazil, according to witnesses. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
The incident happened just before 4 p.m. local time on Thursday when Bolsonaro, of the Social Liberty Party, was being carried by supporters at a political really in Juiz de Fora.
Video shared on social media showed a knife appearing from the crowd and striking Bolsonaro in the abdomen. He was rushed to an area hospital where his son says he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Bolsonaro is a social conservative whose opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion have won him strong support from Christians in Brazil. He has been called “Brazil’s Trump,” and was the leading candidate after the imprisoned socialist Lula da Silva was disqualified from the ballot.

Background on Bolsonaro:

Brazil is on track to exceed the record 63,000+ murders recorded last year. Martial law has been imposed in Rio de Janeiro to contain its notoriously lethal gangs. Mr. Bolsonaro promises tougher law enforcement — and allowing ordinary citizens to arm themselves.
Gabriel Arruda of the Monte Castelo Institute, a center-right think tank in Brasilia, notes that Brazilian voters say they are fed up with crime and corruption, and want somebody who won’t forget about them once they’re elected. This, too, mirrors U.S. voter sentiment in 2016.
A decade of corruption scandals produced political chaos in Brazil. Kickbacks, graft, and cronyism at big state-owned companies such as the oil giant Petrobras and private concerns such as the mammoth Odebrecht conglomerate have left many Brazilians disgusted with their elites.
“Lula,” the longtime head of the socialist Workers’ Party, has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for money-laundering and corruption and faces multiple additional charges as well.
His protege and successor, former President Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and removed from office in 2016 for budgetary misconduct. Her successor, market-oriented centrist Michel Temer, has also been tarnished by corruption accusations.

No suspect has been named in Bolsonaro’s stabbing, so we don’t know the motive, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a Lula supporter.

UPDATE: The suspect has been identified:

A suspect has been detained and has been identified as Adélio Bispo de Oliveira, 40. According to information on the scene, he was badly beaten and has been taken to the hospital. The Federal Police will now open an investigation into the crime.
Speaking to the Brazilian media, federal deputy and Mr. Bolsonaro’s son Flavio Bolsonaro said his father is well, having received six stitches. However, the Santa Casa Hospital in Juiz de Fora has stated that the presidential candidate suffered a perforation to his abdomen and will require surgery. The hospital has confirmed that his situation is stable.
Mr. Bolsonaro is the current presidential front-runner in all opinion polls, after former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva saw his candidacy blocked by the electoral courts last Friday.

UPDATE II: Reuters reports that Bolsonaro is “undergoing surgery for a serious injury to his liver.”

UPDATE III: Bolsanaro’s wound was more serious than first reported:

“The trajectory of the wound provoked various injuries. Mr Jair Bolsonaro arrived in a very serious condition at hospital with low pressure due to blood loss,” Glaucio Souza, one of the surgeons who operated on the candidate.
The knife wound went deep, cutting a vein in his abdomen and causing two other injuries in his intestines, said another surgeon Luiz Borsato, in a press conference broadcast on the hospital’s Facebook page.
“The patient is now in intensive care. It is naturally a serious state because of the magnitude of the trauma but he is stable,” Borsato said. The doctor said Bolsonaro was now conscious and had recognised his sons.
Bolsonaro’s son Flávio — himself a candidate for the Brazilian Senate — had initially described the wound as “only superficial”, but later said that the injuries were more serious, tweeting that the candidate arrived at the hospital “almost dead” after losing a lot of blood.
Borsato said Bolsonaro would be in hospital for at least a week or ten days.

 

Category: Brazil

Comments

Comments are closed.