Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 15, 2026 (AFP)
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro showed signs of improvement Sunday on his third day in intensive care, according to the hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia he developed while in prison.
The far-right leader who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022 has been serving a lengthy sentence since September at the Papuda prison in Brasilia for an attempted coup.
On Friday he was urgently transferred to DF Star Hospital with high fever, a drop in oxygen saturation, sweating and chills.
The hospital said in a statement Sunday that the patient "showed clinical stability and improvement in renal function," which had deteriorated on Saturday.
However, Bolsonaro also showed a rise in markers that detect inflammation, which prompted doctors to expand his antibiotic therapy.
There are no immediate plans to release him from intensive care.
The clinic said Bolsonaro's lung infection stems from a process called bronchoaspiration, in which gastric material like food is inhaled into the respiratory tract rather than the esophagus.
It has been a frequent problem for Bolsonaro since he was stabbed in the abdomen in 2018 while campaigning to become president.
The attack has led to numerous operations and other health problems, including persistent hiccups and vomiting, which doctors said was the direct cause of his current lung infection.
Last year Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in a botched coup attempt after his 2022 election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the current president.
Bolsonaro's lawyers have asked that he be allowed to live under house arrest but the Supreme Court has rejected these requests.
"They are playing with my father's life," his son Flavio Bolsonaro said Friday as he left the hospital.
Brazil's next presidential election is slated for October, and despite his incarceration Bolsonaro remains a central figure on the political stage.
The former president has designated Flavio Bolsonaro as the right-wing candidate to challenge Lula.

Sumber : AFP