Mexico City, October 9 (teleSUR-RHC)-- In an unprecedented move in Mexico, the Mexican Senate is questioning President Enrique Peña Nieto over various scandals, including the spectacular escape of the world's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, giving him 15 days to reply.

The Senate sent Peña Nieto 38 questions, with a selection chosen by each political party, about controversial domestic affairs, including to do with justice, his education and teaching reforms, the White House scandal, the escape of El Chapo and the privatization of areas of Pemex, the state-owned oil company.
   
Twelve of the questions are focused entirely on the debilitated intelligence system in the country and El Chapo's escape through a mile-long tunnel in July.

The lawmakers also expressed concern over the relations with the United States and the deteriorated image and reputation Mexico has around the world.

The opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, specifically focused its questions on the Ayotzinapa case and the changes expected to be implemented after the release of report by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights.

Peña Nieto has also been questioned regarding the weak prison system and the shady contracts granted by his administration to the construction company OHL, which apparently paid off the president and his Finance Minister Luis Videgaray with multi-million-dollar houses in exchange for the contracts.

In related news, Attorney General Arely Gomez reported that 43 more people have been detained in connection with the Sinaloa cartel leader’s second escape after 17 months in jail, during which he planned his escape, while his associates built the tunnel with the apparent approval of government and prison officials. How high up the complicity in his escape goes remains to be revealed.

Among the detainees there is a pilot who is said to have helped El Chapo escape from prison, although his role was not explained.

"Those who helped El Chapo escape from prison will not escape justice,” Gomez said, adding that 10 of the people arrested are accused of also assisting Guzman in his jailbreak from the outside.

"We continue to investigate the connection of the inside with the outside of the prison. Public telephones, and other details are part of the investigation to locate where Guzman is,” she added.