Missing journalists’ remains identified
CALI: The families of two kidnapped and slain Ecuadorean journalists and their driver confirmed on Monday that the remains of their relatives – journalist Javier Ortega, photographer Paul Rivas, and driver Efrain Segarra – who went missing three months ago – had been identified.
“Three months after their trip to San Lorenzo (Ecuador), it has been determined that the bodies found by Colombian authorities in a rural area in the Nariño are the journalist team kidnapped on March26,” said the families in a joint statement.
Colombia’s Attorney-General, Nestor Humberto Martinez, confirmed these statements.
The three were kidnapped and murdered by the Oliver Sinisterra Front, he said.
In a press conference outside the Institute of Legal Medicine in Cali, Martinez announced: “At noon today we have met with the relatives of the victims.
“After analysing the work of the Institute of Legal Medicine, which ended early on Monday morning, the relatives have been informed that the bodies belong to the three Ecuadorian journalists.”
Last week, outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos tweeted that authorities may have found the remains of the three.
It wasn’t until after the medical institute could make DNA comparisons with the victims’ families and interview them extensively regarding any scars, marks or tattoos the slain may have had, that authorities in both countries could unequivocally confirm the identity of the bodies.
Last Friday the institute also tweeted that the dental charts of the three murdered were “totally insufficient” to confirm if they were the remains of those who worked at El Comercio.
The bodies were in too advanced a state of decomposition, making DNA comparisons with their probable living relatives in Ecuador necessary to confirm the identities of those found in Tumaco, Colombia, at the border with Ecuador.
The tweeting by government authorities in both Colombia and Ecuador over the topic prompted the families to release a statement that authorities refrain from using tweets to communicate about such a delicate matter.