Finally accepting rescue help, Brit cavers in legal trouble - Printable Version

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Finally accepting rescue help, Brit cavers in legal trouble - grooveless touque - 03-26-2004

I laughed when I read these. What a poor bunch of blighters. This is the same hapless group that refused offers from Mexican authorities to rescue them from the caves, after being stuck in there for 5 days.

Brits out of Mexican cave, but in big trouble
Last Updated Fri, 26 Mar 2004 7:12:13

MEXICO CITY - Mexico detained six British men late Thursday after British navy rescuers led them out of a flooded Mexican cave where they had been trapped for more than a week.

The men were healthy but unkempt after the ordeal, and half-jokingly asked for beer.

There's no word on whether Mexico will offer them any in the immigration detention centre where they are being held in the nation's capital on suspicion of violating their tourist visas.

The men caused an international flap when they refused to let Mexican rescuers extricate them from the Alpazat cavern in Puebla state, using their communications equipment to ask for a British navy rescue team instead.

"Their stay was legal as tourists, but there are indications that their activities were not of this type," Mexico's assistant interior secretary, Armando Salinas, told reporters late Thursday night.

Immigration officials were expected to question the men to see if they were on an unapproved military or scientific mission. One rumour circulating in local media said they were prospecting for uranium, for example.

Salinas acknowledged that no equipment was found in the cave that would suggest a prospecting trip.

Britain's Foreign Office had earlier insisted that the trip was "strictly a caving expedition," though four of the explorers were members of the British military. The defence minister said the men were members of a military caving club on an "official military adventurous training expedition."

On Wednesday, President Vicente Fox said Mexico would send a letter of protest to Britain over the incident.

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