Enraged Mexico Jails Rescued Anglo Tourists

The same Third World mess that encourages millions of its citizens to become illegal aliens in the U.S. is in an uproar that six British cavers dared to spend their vacation in Mexico.

A day after divers rescued the brave Brits from a water-blocked cavern, Mexican officials jailed them at an immigration detention center and accused them of ... violating national sovereignty. That's something to think about for anyone thinking of visiting Cozumel or Baja.

Mexican cavers, to their credit, defended their English colleagues, four of whom are soldiers, and ridiculed the controversy.

"Many of our athletes are soldiers and go to train in other countries. That does not make them spies," a top Mexican mountain climber, Ricardo Torres Nava, noted today on Mexico's top morning TV news show.

Sen. Laura Alicia Garza grumbled Thursday that there had somehow been a "flagrant violation" of national sovereignty.

However, the Associated Press noted today, the Web site of the government's own tourism board promotes cave exploration in the Cuetzalan area as a form of tourism "for experimented [experienced) speleologists."

The Brits have been exploring the cave system for 18 years and publishing their findings.

"The explorations have never been secret," said Ramon Espinasa, president of Mexican Society of Subterranean Exploration and a participant on earlier expeditions.

Question for Sen. Garza and for President Vicente Fox: When does Mexico plan to start respecting America's national sovereignty?

Editor's note: