Cali, June 26 (RHC)-- The identification of the bodies of three murdered Ecuadorean journalists in Colombia has been confirmed.  On Monday, relatives of the deceased issued a statement saying that the remains of journalist Javier Ortega; Paul Rivas, photographer and driver, Efrain Segarra – had been identified.

"Today, June 25, three months after their trip to San Lorenzo (Ecuador), it has been determined that the bodies found by Colombian authorities in the rural area in the Nariño department belong to the journalist team kidnapped on March 26,” they said.

Colombia’s Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez confirmed these statements, saying that the three were kidnapped and murdered by the Oliver Sinisterra Front.

TeleSUR reported that in a press conference outside the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cali, Martinez announced he had met with the relatives of the victims, after they received confirmation of the identification.

Last Friday the institute tweeted that the dental charts of the three murdered were "totally insufficient" to confirm if they were the remains of the those who worked at El Comercio. The bodies were in too far a state of decomposition making DNA comparisons with their likely living relatives in Ecuador necessary to confirm the identities of those found in Tumaco, Colombia at the border with Ecuador.

The public tweeting by government authorities in both Colombia and Ecuador over the topic prompted the families to release a statement requesting authorities to refrain from using tweets to communicate about such a delicate matter.

The bodies of Ortega, Riva, and Segarra will be repatriated to their home country on Wednesday.