British cavers held by Mexican authorities

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=505461

When Operation Cuetzalan Tiger swung into action early last week, its aim was to provide a group of off-duty British soldiers, sailors and airmen with a month of quiet exploration of the darkest reaches of Mexico.

By yesterday what had started as an "adventurous training exercise" of Latin America's largest cavern complex by a joint-services caving club had become what one Foreign Office official in London bluntly described as a "diplomatic dog's breakfast".

The 13 members of the British team, including six men who had to be rescued from the remote Alpazat cave system after becoming trapped for eight days by flood water, were last night being "interviewed" by immigration officials after the Mexican government ordered they be taken to a detention centre in Mexico City.

The official inquiry into whether they have broken Mexican visa laws capped a calamitous week which put the hitherto low-profile Combined Services Caving Association at the centre of full-blown international incident complete with a rebuke from a president and allegations of clandestine uranium prospecting.

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