14-06-2018: Latin American Weekly Report

An air of resignation prevailed in Mexico’s third and final presidential debate throughout much of which Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the clear frontrunner, sported a smile. Neither Ricardo Anaya, of the Left-Right coalition Por México al Frente, nor José Antonio Meade, of the federally ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), his principal rivals, seemed able to conjure up a decisive attack to wipe it off his face. López Obrador could rest easy in the knowledge that with barely two weeks of the campaign remaining he enjoys an average lead of around 20 percentage points in electoral surveys, the most commanding position held by any presidential candidate since the PRI allowed competitive elections in 2000.