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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in intensive care and undergoing surgery to clear bleeding in his brain caused by a fall in October, the government said on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old Lula underwent a craniotomy to drain a hematoma from his head after an MRI scan showed “intracranial bleeding,” according to a medical record shared by the government.
A government official told the Financial Times that Lula traveled to Brasilia for medical treatment late on Monday for a headache, and then flew to Sao Paulo for further treatment at around 10pm.
According to the medical advisory, his injuries were related to a fall in the bathroom at home on October 19, and he required several stitches after the fall. The statement said Lula was “in good condition” and was being monitored in the intensive care unit of São Paulo’s Sírio Libanes hospital after the operation went “smoothly.” Doctors will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday.
After the accident, Lula canceled his attendance at the BRICS summit in Russia in October.
The former metalworker and union leader, who served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2011, had previously suffered from cancer.
He spent more than a year and a half in prison until 2019 on corruption convictions that were later overturned, opening the door for him to enter politics. Lula narrowly defeated far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.
Lula has been pursuing a busy travel schedule since returning to power early last year for a third term. But he has made only one international trip since the fall in October, last week to Uruguay for the Mercosur summit, where the South American bloc announced a trade deal with the European Union after long negotiations.
Lula’s surgery comes at a challenging time for his presidency as he struggles to pledge to increase welfare spending and expand the state’s role in raising living standards in Latin America’s largest economy.
Despite the government’s commitment to eliminate the primary budget deficit – the deficit before interest payments – investors have expressed growing concerns about the government’s fiscal policy on taxation and spending.
The Brazilian real fell below 6 against the dollar last month, hitting a record low amid growing concerns about the country’s public finances. It was unchanged at $6.08 per dollar in early trading Tuesday.
If Lula is absent from the presidency or travels abroad, the position will be taken over by Vice President Gerardo Alckmin.
Alckmin, a former political rival whom Lula defeated in the 2006 presidential election, is considered business-friendly and twice served as governor of Sao Paulo state. He also heads the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade.
