With a month to go before the presidential election in Brazil, the two most popular candidates are out of the spotlight: Squid in jail, Bolsonaro in the hospital. The former is ineligible, while the latter will probably win, but he is forced to end the electoral campaign early.
Not only that, after the attack, the main presidential candidates suspended their electoral campaigns. Fernando Haddad – running for the vice presidency of the Workers' Party (PT), which will probably replace Lula after the rejection of the former president's candidacy – canceled his participation in the Grido degli Esclusi, a political demonstration which has taken place on September 1995 since 7, celebrating the independence of Brazil. Also Gerald Alckmin, of the Social Democratic Party (Psdb, centre-right), Marina Silva (Sustainability Network, environmentalist), and Ciro Gomes (Democratic Labor Party, centre-left) have announced the suspension.
Candidate of the far right and leading the polls for the October 7 vote, Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed today while attending an election rally in Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais. Wounded to the mesenteric artery and intestine, he was operated on urgently and now his conditions are defined as "stable" by doctors, but the candidate must remain hospitalized in Juiz de Fora for at least a week or ten days and must rest for at least another three weeks. Re-operation will be required after the injury to the large intestine has healed.
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Bolsonaro was being carried by his sympathizers on the street when he was stabbed by a man who had approached him in the audience. The attacker almost got lynched by the mob, but was quickly caught by the military police. The perpetrator of the bombing has been identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, a 40-year-old from Minas Gerais who pleaded guilty.
De Oliveira was a supporter of Luiz Inacio Squid da Silva, the former president who is serving a sentence at 12 years' imprisonment for corruption and money laundering and that he ranked first in the polls for next month's consultation, but what was judged ineligible by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.
Ma Fernando Haddad, the vice-presidential candidate of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), who will most likely take his place, joined the chorus of condemnation of the attack, calling it "unacceptable" and wishing Bolsonaro to recover from the injuries suffered as soon as possible.
