09 January 2023 , 17:41
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Ousted Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been rushed to hospital in the US.
The 67-year-old has been admitted to hospital in Orlando, Florida, after experiencing "severe abdominal pains", according to reports.
The far-right politician is currently living in The Sunshine State is being treated at the Advent Health Celebration facility, say local media.
Further details on his condition have not yet been released.
It comes hours after his supporters wreaked havoc in his homeland, storming the country's Congress.
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Bolsonaro is understood to have ongoing issues with his abdomen.
Bolsonaro is understood to have ongoing abdomen issues (AFP via Getty Images)He previously shared a photo of himself giving a thumbs up in a hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in January last year while being treated for a blockage in his intensines.
Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen during his 2018 presidential campaign and he has undergone at least four surgeries since.
Brazilian authorities have vowed to protect democracy after thousands of Bolsonaro's supporters stormed congress, the supreme court and presidential palace in the capital Brasilia.
The protesters were seeking military intervention to either restore him to power or oust the newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, unleashing chaos and destruction that bore striking similarities to the insurrection at the US capitol on January 6 last year.
A Military Police officer falls from his horse during clashes with supporters of Bolsonaro (AFP via Getty Images)Rioters donning the green and yellow of the national flag on Sunday broke windows, toppled furniture, hurled computers and printers to the ground at the nation's highest seats of power in the capital.
They punctured a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting in five places, overturned the U-shaped table at which supreme court justices convene, ripped a door off one justice's office and vandalised a statue outside the court.
The buildings' interiors were left in states of ruin.
Authorities made a point to show that they were moving to prevent further attacks on Brazil's democratic rule of law.
Protesters ransack an office after storming the Planalto Palace in Brasilia (Eraldo Peres/AP/REX/Shutterstock)In a news conference late on Sunday, Brazil's minister of institutional relations said the buildings would be inspected for evidence, including fingerprints, while images would be scanned to hold people to account, before claiming the rioters apparently intended to spark similar actions nationwide.
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Justice minister Flavio Dino said the acts amounted to terrorism and coup-mongering, and that police had started tracking those who paid for the buses that transported protesters to the capital.
"They will not succeed in destroying Brazilian democracy. We need to say that fully, with all firmness and conviction," Mr Dino said.
"We will not accept the path of criminality to carry out political fights in Brazil. A criminal is treated like a criminal."
Hundreds of protesters broke through police barricades and stormed into Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court (AFP via Getty Images)So far, 300 people have been arrested, the federal district's civil police said on Twitter.
But police were noticeably slow to react - even after the arrival of more than 100 buses - leading many to ponder whether authorities had either simply ignored numerous warnings, underestimated the protesters' strength, or had been somehow complicit.
Public prosecutors in the capital said local security forces had at the very least been negligent while a supreme court justice temporarily suspended the regional governor.
Another justice blamed authorities for not swiftly cracking down on Brazil's budding neofascism, adding that they will be held criminally responsible.
Security forces arrest protesters after retaking control of Planalto Presidential Palace (AFP via Getty Images)In the months that followed Bolsonaro's electoral defeat on October 30, Brazil was on edge, and wary of any avenue he might pursue to cling to power.
He had been stoking belief among his hardcore supporters that the country's electronic voting system was prone to fraud - though he never presented any evidence to support this claim.
His son Eduardo Bolsonaro also held several meetings with former US president Donald Trump, Trump's longtime ally Steve Bannon and his senior campaign adviser, Jason Miller.