Jair Bolsonaro's health is more serious than initially thought.
After being hospitalized for persistent hiccups, the Brazilian president was diagnosed with an intestinal obstruction.
The Ministry of Communications said on Wednesday that the 66-year-old will be relocated from the capital Brasília to São Paulo for further investigations.
There it should be checked whether Bolsonaro has to undergo an emergency operation.
The president had been admitted to a military hospital on Wednesday night because of hiccups that had persisted for over ten days.
According to the presidential office, the complaints occurred after a dental implant operation.
Bolsonaro wrote on Facebook last Thursday: "I have hiccups 24 hours a day." The 66-year-old suspected it could be because of the medication he was taking.
A photo of Bolsonaro was last published on the president's social media channels.
It shows him with a bare upper body and numerous tubes in and on the body on a hospital bed.
Another person can partially be seen in the cutout, laying one arm on his shoulder.
It could be a priest.
Son reports about his father's problems
Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the politician's sons, told CNN that his father had recently had difficulty speaking.
The doctors also removed fluid from his abdomen.
Flavio Bolsonaro described a possible operation as a "less serious operation".
The right-wing extremist president has had to receive medical treatment several times in the past, including after a knife attack in the 2018 election campaign, which he only barely survived.
In July of last year, he was also sick with Covid-19, but had only mild symptoms and did not need hospital treatment.
jok / AFP