Published on 09.09.2019 at 18h54 by AFP

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said he would return to work Tuesday following lengthy abdominal surgery at the weekend.

A video posted on Twitter Monday showed the 64-year-old president sitting up in his hospital bed and smiling as he watched a popular Mexican soap on television.

“I’m just resting today, tomorrow I’m going back to work,” he wrote.

Bolsonaro underwent a five-hour operation on Sunday to repair an abdominal hernia.

The procedure at the Vila Nova Star hospital took two hours longer than anticipated. It was his fourth operation since being stabbed in the stomach a year ago at a campaign rally.

Bolsonaro’s spokesman Otavio Rego Barros told reporters at the hospital that the far-right president would travel to New York later this month to address the annual UN General Assembly.

Rego Barros said that although Bolsonaro said he would resume working Tuesday, Vice-President Hamilton Mourao would remain in charge of the government until Thursday as originally planned.

A medical bulletin released by the hospital indicated Bolsonaro was recovering normally, describing his condition as “stable, painless and fever free.”