Officials: Ecuador journalists abducted near Colombia border

QUITO, Ecuador – Two journalists working with an Ecuadorean newspaper were kidnapped near the country’s conflictive border with Colombia, authorities said Tuesday.

Interior Minister Cesar Navas said the journalists and their driver disappeared after passing through an Ecuadorean military checkpoint and being warned of the dangerous conditions ahead.

The El Comercio news team was taken captive Monday morning and later transported to Colombia, officials said.

Authorities said that they were in contact with the alleged kidnappers and that all three of those taken were believed to be OK.

Violence along Ecuador’s northern border has increased in recent weeks as officials clash with drug trafficking groups as well as dissident ex-combatants of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which signed a peace accord with the Colombian government.

Three soldiers were killed in an explosion this month.