Brazil's Lula leaves hospital, speaks publicly for first time since surgeries

RIO DE JANEIRO - Doctors discharged Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from a Sao Paulo hospital on Sunday, after a pair of emergency surgeries last week to treat and prevent bleeding in his head.

The 79-year-old leftist leader also spoke publicly for the first time at a hospital press conference, appearing upbeat wearing a hat and gesturing frequently with his hands as he talked. He stressed that he was eager to get back to work as soon as possible, which his medical team said they approved, along with advice to avoid long-haul international flights until further notice and exercise for up to a month.

"I'm here, whole," Lula said after spending most of last week at Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes Hospital, where he had been receiving care. "I'm healed. I just need to take care of myself."

The president also commented on the Saturday arrest of Walter Braga Netto, the former defense minister and vice presidential running mate to far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro. Braga Netto, a retired general, is accused by federal police of plotting a coup to overturn Lula's narrow election win over Bolsonaro, and assassinate him shortly after the 2022 vote.

"It's unacceptable that in a generous country like Brazil we have people of high military rank plotting the death of a president," said Lula.

Lula's latest health scare 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.

Doctors said Lula will continue his recovery at home in Sao Paulo before going back to the capital Brasilia. He is unlikely to make the trip before next Thursday, when he is set to undergo a CT scan, a medical procedure used to obtain detailed internal images of the body.

(Reporting by Fabio Teixeira; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, David Alire Garcia and Bill Berkrot)