"Sadly, we have information confirming the murder of our fellow countrymen," Moreno told reporters in Quito, two hours after the expiry of a 12-hour deadline he had given captors to prove the trio was still alive -- or else face a "forceful" response.

"We have resumed ... military and police operations in the strip of land by the border where they were previously suspended and I am immediately sending in a deployment of elite units from the army and the police," Moreno said.

The ultimatum was issued after his government received photos from a Colombian TV station suggesting the three men, all Ecuadorans, were dead.

The three -- reporter Javier Ortega, 32, photographer Paul Rivas, 45, and their driver Efrain Segarra, 60 -- all worked for the influential El Comercio newspaper and were following a story on violence in the border area when they were kidnapped on March 26 by rogue forces affiliated with Colombia's recently-disbanded FARC rebels.