Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was released from hospital on Sunday after undergoing surgery to stop a brain hemorrhage.
The 79-year-old president spoke alongside doctors at a news conference Sunday morning, saying he was doing well after his head surgery.
“I’m here alive, well, wanting to work. And I’ll tell you something I was saying during the campaign. I’m 79 years old, I have the energy of 30 and the enthusiasm of 20 years to build this country,” Lula said.
Lula’s medical team said the operation went well and that Lula would be able to walk and hold meetings while he rested at his home in the city of Sao Paulo until Thursday.
Eraldo Peres / AP
The leader’s doctors said international travel would be out of the question until further notice, but he could travel to the country’s capital, Brasilia, if all goes well during a medical exam.
The president also made his first comments on the arrest on Saturday of General Walter Braga Netto, a former member of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government and his running mate for 2022, as part of investigations. in an alleged coup plot. Lula has largely avoided commenting on the matter due to ongoing investigations.
“It is not possible for us to accept a lack of respect for democracy, a lack of respect for the Constitution. And it is not possible for us to accept that in a generous country like Brazil, we have soldiers of high-ranking people who are plotting the death of a president, his vice president and president of the Supreme Electoral Court,” Lula said.
Braga Netto was indicted in November, along with Bolsonaro and 35 others, for plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in power after his 2022 re-election bid failed.
Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges against Braga Netto. His arrest was linked to allegations of obstructing the collection of evidence, federal police said in a statement.
