SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian doctors said Monday that former President Jair Bolsonaro is conscious and remains in intensive care following a 12-hour surgery for a bowel obstruction the day prior. The far-right leader was hospitalized due to problems related to long-term effects of being stabbed in the abdomen in September 2018.
Doctors at the DF Star Hospital said in a press conference in Brasilia that they do not expect to discharge Bolsonaro this week. Cláudio Birolini, the head of the medical team, said the former president has experienced discomfort in his abdomen since Christmas.
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Doctor Claudio Birolini talks about the abdominal surgery on former President Jair Bolsonaro at DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
DF Star Hospital, where former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro transferred after being hospitalized for abdominal pain, is seen in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Doctor Claudio Birolini talks about the abdominal surgery on former President Jair Bolsonaro at DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro pray outside DF Star hospital where he had abdominal surgery in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro prays outside DF Star hospital where he had abdominal surgery in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
“That is a sign that something hasn't been going well,” Birolini said. “The beginning of this is the stabbing. After that, all surgeries of reconstruction have a role in the current situation.”
Birolini and his team said there were no complications during the procedure.
Cardiologist Leandro Echenique described the procedure as Bolsonaro's “most complex” surgery since the stabbing. The medical team expected the procedure to be as long as it was.
“It is going to be a very delicate and prolonged post-surgery,” Echenique said. The former president is expected to stand trial in the next few months at Brazil's Supreme Court for allegedly attempting to stage a coup in January, 2023, with riots led by his supporters in Brasilia.
Bolsonaro was admitted Friday to a hospital in Santa Cruz, a small city in Rio Grande do Norte, and later transferred to a hospital in the state’s capital, Natal. On Saturday, his family requested his transfer to Brasilia, doctors said.
Bolsonaro has been in and out of hospitals since the attack at a campaign event before Brazil’s 2018 presidential election. He underwent several surgeries during his presidency from 2019-2022.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Doctor Claudio Birolini talks about the abdominal surgery on former President Jair Bolsonaro at DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
DF Star Hospital, where former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro transferred after being hospitalized for abdominal pain, is seen in Brasilia, Brazil, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Doctor Claudio Birolini talks about the abdominal surgery on former President Jair Bolsonaro at DF Star Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro pray outside DF Star hospital where he had abdominal surgery in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro prays outside DF Star hospital where he had abdominal surgery in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
DENVER (AP) — A soldier present at an after-hours nightclub where more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into custody last weekend has been charged with distributing cocaine, court records show.
Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, who is assigned to Fort Carson, an Army post near the illegal club in Colorado Springs, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.
Orona-Rodriquez has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit. It said he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration days before the raid.
Orona-Rodriguez — a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division — appeared briefly in federal court in Denver Thursday afternoon.
Dressed in camouflage pants and a khaki T-shirt and holding court documents in his handcuffed hands, Orona-Rodriguez listened as the magistrate judge explained his rights and agreed to appoint a public defender to represent him.
At the request of a federal prosecutor, Orona-Rodriguez will continue to be held until a hearing to discuss his detention on Tuesday. His lawyer, Josh Lilley, did not address the allegations against him during the hearing.
The FBI said the arrest followed an investigation by the DEA, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and officials at Fort Carson.
More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies participated in Sunday’s operation at the nightclub, which had been under investigation for months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.
Cocaine was among the drugs found, Pullen said at a news conference.
Orona-Rodriquez was one of about 17 active-duty U.S. Army service members who were at the club, known as Warike, when it was raided early Sunday, the affidavit said.
He appears to have held a leadership role in a business that provides armed security at nightclubs, including at Warike, according to the document. However, it did not say whether he was working security there at the time of the raid. It notes that he had been warned by his commanding officer this spring that he could not work for the security company.
Rodriguez received more than a dozen Army awards during his almost nine years in service, including an Army Commendation Medal with combat device, which is earned during a deployment where the soldier was “performing meritoriously under the most arduous combat conditions,” according to Army descriptions of the award.
Of the 17 soldiers who were at the venue at the time of the raid, 16 were patrons and one was working there in a security role, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Sixteen of the soldiers there were assigned to Fort Carson, the official did not know where the seventeenth was assigned.
Investigators suspect Orona-Rodriguez was getting cocaine from an unidentified Mexican citizen who is “unlawfully present in the United States without admission,” according to the affidavit.
President Donald Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.
Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officers stop a patron from a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a law enforcement officer with a weapon drawn is shown at a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)
