The chasing pack of Mexican presidential candidates attacked front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a second televised debate on Sunday without landing major blows in exchanges that often returned to fraught relations with the United States. Leftist Lopez Obrador sought to deflect questions, as he did in the first debate last month ahead of the July 1 election. He stuck to many of his stock responses to defend his sizeable opinion poll lead, rarely rising to the bait and occasionally mocking his rivals. The debate, focused principally on trade, migrants, the Mexico-US border and the fight against criminal gangs, drew several rebukes of US President Donald Trump, whose broadsides against Mexico have stirred widespread animosity. The second-placed challenger, 39-year-old Ricardo Anaya, crossed the stage to address Lopez Obrador face to face in a bid to rile the former Mexico City mayor. But the 64-year-old Lopez Obrador brushed off the attacks, dismissively calling Anaya a “liar and a fraud.” “Anaya is a little bum demagogue,” Lopez Obrador said, at one point laughingly telling the audience in the northern city of Tijuana he was watching out for his wallet when Anaya approached him to challenge his record as mayor of the capital. Anaya, who is heading a right-left coalition, emerged as the victor of the first debate in some polls. He tried to paint Lopez Obrador as out of touch, ill-informed and beholden to outdated economic models. But Lopez Obrador showed fewer signs of irritation than in the first debate, remaining in good humor and rarely wandering from his script. Published in Daily Times, May 22nd 2018.