Brazil's newly-elected populist President Jair Bolsonaro will take center stage at the World Economic Forum (WEF) next week, taking the baton from Donald Trump after the U.S. president announced he would not be joining the rich and powerful in Davos this year.
Thousands of business, political and cultural leaders are scheduled to return to the Swiss Alpine town of Davos on Monday. The annual forum is seen as an opportunity for international heads of state to come together to try and put the world to rights.
This year's five-day event is without its main attraction of 2018, after Trump abruptly scrapped plans to join other world leaders at the forum due to the ongoing government shutdown.
But, the absence of the U.S. president is likely to thrust Brazil's premier into the spotlight, less than three weeks after his inauguration.
"Bolsonaro will be the first LATAM (Latin America) speaker at Davos, speaking for 45 minutes — but that's where the danger is," Carlos Caicedo, senior principal analyst for Latin America at IHS Markit, a London-based research firm, told CNBC via telephone on Friday.
"At his inauguration, he only spoke for 10 minutes, meaning his advisors could keep him on message. But, this is a man who has made a name for himself by saying whatever he wants and only worrying about the consequences later … Thankfully there is no question and answer session afterwards," Caicedo said.