Journalist Javier Ortega (32), photojournalist Paul Rivas (45) and their 60-year-old driver Efrain Segarra, all working for the El Comercio newspaper were found dead in the coastal region of Mataje on Ecuador's northern border with Colombia. The trio had been snatched on 26 March, with renegades from the former rebel movement in Colombia, FARC, being accused of these killings.

The authorities in Colombia and Ecuador launched operations on the border to track down those behind the kidnap and murders of the journalists and their driver.