Kidnapped journalists appeal to Ecuador's president in video

BOGOTA, Colombia – Journalists kidnapped a week ago along Ecuador's border with Colombia have appeared in a video appealing to Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno.

In the 22-second video the three men, chained together at their necks, relayed their captors' demands that Moreno release three unidentified combatants and end anti-narcotics cooperation with Colombia in exchange for their freedom.

The journalists from Ecuador's El Comercio were taken hostage while investigating a rise in drug-fueled violence along Ecuador's northern border. Authorities have blamed a holdout faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that didn't lay down their weapons as part of a 2016 peace deal. The journalists didn't identify their captors in the video.

Colombia's RCN network didn't say how it obtained the video.