Mexico: Students didn't train with rebels

WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- Mexican officials have disputed claims that several Mexican students killed in a recent raid on Colombian rebels were being trained in the use of explosives.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora -- who was visiting Washington -- said several Mexican students were in Ecuador visiting leftist groups associated with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has spoken in support of Colombia's leftist rebels, The Miami Herald reported Thursday.

Colombian forces earlier this month entered Ecuadorian territory to kill a Colombian rebel leader at a secret camp just 1 mile inside the border, sparking a diplomatic firestorm among Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Meanwhile, lawyers for a Cuban-born Mexican man accused of having ties to Colombian rebels say he is innocent.

Mario Dagoberto Diaz Orgaz is the center of an investigation by Mexican authorities into whether he is a Cuban intelligence officer who helped facilitate contact between the Mexican students and Colombia's leftist rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.