QUITO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador on Saturday lodged a formal complaint against Colombia's "hasty" release of details on a three-member reporting team from Ecuador who were captured and killed along the shared border in March.
Foreign Minister Jose Valencia lodged the complaint with his Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin, according to the ministry.
The Colombian statement "violates established protocols," including those of the International Red Cross, and inflicted psychological pain on the relatives of the victims, Ecuador said.
Journalist Javier Ortega (32), photographer Paul Rivas (45), and Efrain Segarra (60), their driver, were sent by Ecuadorian daily El Comercio to report on the rising violence in the border region. They were kidnapped on March 26 by the Oliver Sinisterra Front, a dissident guerrilla group that broke away from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), and were later killed.
Colombia should speed up its investigation into the crime and punish those who hastily released the details of the case, Ecuador said.
Forensic experts are in the process of identifying the bodies of the victims.
On Thursday, the Colombian government announced the discovery of three cadavers in the south that could well be the kidnap victims'.
Colombia's Defense Ministry tweeted that based on dental records, officials were "99 percent" certain the bodies belonged to the missing team, but DNA tests were pending.
On Friday, a delegation of Ecuadorian officials and family members of the victims traveled to Colombia to help identify the remains with the help of DNA samples. The results are expected Monday or Tuesday.
Ecuador and Colombia are offering a reward of 230,000 U.S. dollars for information leading to the capture of the leader of the Oliver Sinisterra Front, which is also blamed for the death of four Ecuadorian soldiers and the kidnapping of a couple in April, who remain in captivity.
The FARC signed a peace deal with the government in 2016 and has since renounced violence and transformed into a political party. But a small number of its members have refused to give up their activities.
