Immigration officials grilled British cavers for more than eight hours Friday and inspected their computers before electing to hand them over to federal police, but reported no evidence the group had been doing more than exploring caverns.
In an usually high-level dispute over a visa case, Mexican President Vicente Fox earlier in the day said he was not satisfied with Britain's explanation of what the military-linked caving team had been doing in Mexico.
Academics from Mexico's National University examined the group's equipment, backpacks and computers, said assistant Interior Secretary Armando Salinas.
"They did not find any equipment or information on those computers other than that used for cave exploration," Salinas said.
While Mexican news media suggested the British had been hunting for uranium, the federal Energy Department released a statement late Friday night saying the level of radioactivity in the cavern system the team was exploring was normal and that "no scientific reason exists to believe the zone is rich in radioactive materials."
Even so, federal police were given a chance to question the men on the uranium allegations.
Under Mexican law, immigration authorities often turn suspects over to other agencies for questioning before they are deported or allowed to go free.
If federal prosecutors determine that the men should not be charged, immigration officials would still have to decide whether they violated the terms of their tourist visas, in which case they could be punished by deportation, prohibited from returning to Mexico for several years -- or face fines of up to 3,000 pesos (US$270) or spend 18 months in jail, Salinas said.
Traveling in Nicaragua, Fox said his government had asked Britain for "clear information about what they were doing."
London's response was "frankly, unsatisfactory," the president said.
"We want more clarity about what this affair is about," Fox said.
One state official vowed to keep tighter tabs on foreigners entering under tourist visas, though his state promotes cave tourism.
British and Mexican divers helped the six trapped but unharmed cavers out of the Alpazat caverns, 175km northwest of Mexico City on Thursday, but the controversy over what they were doing underground continued to burn.
Mexican newspapers suggested the cavers were doing more than just exploring, noting they were carrying gas-sensing equipment that might detect uranium. Local cavers said the devices were meant to avoid toxic radioactive gases.
The group also was mapping the caves -- as speleologists normally do -- suggesting they were involved in scientific research.
Organized crime prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos said federal police were investigating the uranium claim, but said, "We have no evidence, at this moment, of any illegal activity."
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
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