Brazil's Lula seen walking for first time since surgeries

SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted an Instagram video on Friday where he can be seen walking for the first time since being rushed to a hospital earlier this week, providing visual evidence of a delicate recovery.

The 79-year-old leftist leader, known simply as Lula, underwent two operations in Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes Hospital to relieve and prevent bleeding in his skull.

The latest health scare suffered by the veteran politician, now in his third non-consecutive term as president, has provoked doubts among political analysts, with some arguing that succession plans within Lula's Workers Party would be cast into disarray if he cannot run again in 2026.

The president's spokesman on Thursday shrugged off any concerns that health or age would thwart Lula's expected reelection bid.

In the Instagram video, Lula appears with bandages on the top of his head and on his arm while casually talking with his wife Rosangela da Sivla and doctor Marcos Stavale, who led the surgery.

The video was posted several hours after a medical note from the hospital saying that Lula was in "semi-intensive care," adding that he "remains lucid, is eating normally and walked through the hallways."

Doctors operated on Lula for about two hours on Tuesday to drain bleeding between his brain and meningeal membrane, which they said was linked to a fall at his home in late October.

The president underwent a second procedure on Thursday, a middle meningeal artery embolization, aimed at minimizing the risk of additional bleeding in the future. He later had a drain removed from his head without complications.