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Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro He underwent double hernia surgery on Thursday, his family said.
Bolsonaro, hospitalized since Wednesday, is serving a sentence 27-year prison sentence since November for an attempted coup.
“My love just went to the operating room,” Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said in an Instagram post.
He obtained court permission to leave prison after federal police doctors confirmed he needed the procedure. The surgery in Brasilia, the national capital, is expected to last about four hours, the medical team at DF Star Hospital said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It’s a complex surgery,” said Dr. Claudio Birolini, according to Agence France-Presse. “But this is a standardized…scheduled surgery, so we hope the procedure will go ahead without major complications.”
Evaristo Sa /AFP via Getty Images 
Doctors say Bolsonaro’s double hernia is causing him pain. The former leader, in power between 2019 and 2022, underwent several other surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and sentenced him to prison, authorized the proceedings but rejected the former president’s request for house arrest after his release from hospital.
Bolsonaro has no contact with the few other detainees at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, where he is being held and where his room of about 12 square meters has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a television and a desk, according to authorities.
Eraldo Peres / AP 
He has free access to his doctors and lawyers, but other visitors must receive approval from the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, de Moraes allowed Bolsonaro’s sons to visit him while he was hospitalized.
After Thursday’s operation, doctors will evaluate whether Bolsonaro can undergo an additional procedure: blocking the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm, for recurring hiccups, Birolini said.
On Thursday morning, his eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, told reporters before the operation that his father had written a letter confirming that he had nominated him as his political party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. Flávio Bolsonaro announced on December 5 that he would contest President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawho is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, as a candidate for Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.
The senator read the letter to reporters and his office distributed a copy to the media.
“It represents the continuation of the path of prosperity that I began long before becoming president, because I believe that we must restore the responsibility to lead Brazil with justice, determination and loyalty to the aspirations of the Brazilian people,” Bolsonaro said in the handwritten letter dated December 25.
The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court judges for trying to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat.
The plot included assassinating Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and de Moraes. It was also planned to encourage an insurrection in early 2023.
Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges including leading an armed criminal organization and attempting to violently abolish the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.
