QUITO, April 13 (Xinhua) -- President of Ecuador Lenin Moreno on Friday confirmed the deaths of three press workers who were kidnapped by dissident Colombian rebel group last month near the border.

"Tragically, we have information which confirms the murder of our countrymen," said the president at a press conference, after an emergency meeting of the national public security council.

Moreno said that he had given the kidnappers until 10:50 a.m. local time Friday to provide proof that journalist Javier Ortega, photographer Paul Rivas and their driver Efrain Segarra, who worked for the local daily, El Comercio, were alive.

After the deadline expired, Moreno said that "it has been confirmed that these criminals never had the intention of delivering them safe and sound."

The team was captured in the area of Mataje in the northeastern province of Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border. The kidnapping was allegedly carried out by a dissident front of now extinct the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.