Brazil's President Lula undergoes emergency brain surgery

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was recovering in an intensive care unit on Tuesday after being rushed to a Sao Paulo hospital for emergency surgery to drain a bleed on his brain linked to a fall in October.

The 79-year-old Lula was in stable condition and speaking and eating normally after the successful operation at Sirio Libanes Hospital, doctors said at a press conference.

The bleeding that Lula experienced occurred between his brain and meningeal membrane, added the doctors, who ruled out any injury to the brain or neurological complications.

Lula, who was in surgery for about two hours, is expected to remain in intensive care for 48 hours and return to the capital Brasilia early next week "if everything goes well," his doctor, Roberto Kalil Filho, told reporters.

The emergency surgery added to health concerns about the aging president, a standard bearer of the Latin American left who is halfway through his third non-consecutive term.

Weak results for his Workers Party in this year's municipal elections underscored the lack of a clear leftist successor if he chooses not to run for re-election in 2026.

Lula has curtailed travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from trauma to the back of his head when he fell at his home in late October, requiring stitches.

He complained of a worsening headache during talks with congressional leaders on Monday evening in Brasilia, and was taken to a local hospital for exams, presidential spokesperson Paulo Pimenta said in a radio interview.

An MRI scan detected an intracranial hemorrhage, and Lula was flown soon after to Sao Paulo for the surgery, according to a medical note released by the government.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin cancelled plans in Sao Paulo on Tuesday to return to Brasilia, his aide said, where he will assume Lula's agenda, including a visit from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Pimenta said Lula may not need to formally transfer the powers of the presidency to Alckmin.

After some five decades of public life, Lula remains a dynamic force on Brazil's political scene, whipping up crowds with his gruff voice and hammering out policy details in personal meetings with lawmakers.

Born into poverty in northeast Brazil, Lula found work as a metalworker in Sao Paulo before rising through union ranks to lead strikes pitting him against the country's military government in the 1970s.

He co-founded the Workers Party and ran repeatedly for the presidency after Brazil's transition to democracy in the 1980s before winning the office in 2002. His first two terms were marked by a China-driven commodities boom that boosted Brazil's economy and helped to fund more generous social spending.

After he left office in 2011 with record popularity, his chosen successor oversaw a deep recession and was impeached amid a sprawling corruption investigation that jailed Lula himself, convicted of accepting bribes.

The Supreme Court eventually threw out that conviction on procedural grounds, opening the door for his successful presidential run in 2022 to cap a stunning comeback.

His first year back in office was marked by a series of international trips - and hip surgery in September. In late October he slipped and fell in the presidential residence, leading to the intracranial bleeding that his doctors had been monitoring.

The injury forced him to cancel a trip to Russia for a summit of the BRICS group of major emerging markets in Kazan. Tests in early November showed Lula's condition was stable and he remained active, recently travelling to Montevideo to discuss a Mercosur trade deal.

"I wish President Lula a speedy recovery. May he return to work as soon as possible to continue leading his government's actions, so important for the country at this moment," Senate head Rodrigo Pacheco said in a statement.

Pacheco and the speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira, met with Lula on Monday as he pushed for legislative approval of a package of spending cuts that has kept financial markets on edge.