SAO PAULO, Sept 9 — Vice President Hamilton Mourao will be Brazil's acting president through Thursday while President Jair Bolsonaro recovers from abdominal surgery resulting from his stabbing at a political rally last year, his spokesman said yesterday.

Bolsonaro was stable after a successful five-hour surgery, the presidential palace said in a statement.

Yesterday's surgery was to correct an incisional hernia due to a weakening of certain tissues from three previous surgeries in the president's abdomen after he was stabbed in September 2018.

Presidential Spokesman General Otavio Barros told a news conference Mourao, a former army general, would act as president for five days starting yesterday.

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Chief Surgeon Antonio Macedo told reporters he expects Bolsonaro to be able to travel from Sao Paulo to the capital Brasília in a week to 10 days. An incisional hernia is a protrusion of tissue that forms at the site of a healing surgical scar.

Bolsonaro, 64, wrote on Twitter on Saturday night before the surgery: “I remain confident for the next surgery. May God bless us. Good night.” He tweeted after taking part in festivities to mark Brazil's 197th Independence Day in Brasília.

Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, the man accused of attacking Bolsonaro, was acquitted after a judge in Minas Gerais ruled he was mentally ill. In a decision handed down in June, the court ordered his detention in a mental illness facility for an undetermined period of time. — Reuters

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