BOGOTA -- Colombian authorities said they are 99 per cent sure they have successfully identified the bodies of three Ecuadorean press workers kidnapped in a restless border region.

The Defence Ministry said Friday night on Twitter that dental records provided by family members who travelled to Colombia assisted forensic experts in the task of identification. The bodies were found Thursday close to where the press workers were being held, but DNA testing continues.

The employees worked with Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper and were investigating a rise in drug-fueled violence along the Colombia-Ecuador border when they disappeared in March.

In a proof-of-life video the men identified their captors as members of a dissident arm of the now disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.