BOGOTA -- Venezuelan authorities yesterday recovered the body of the 11th and last man kidnapped near the Colombian border and killed execution-style in an incident that has stoked tensions between the neighboring countries.

Officials in San Cristobal, capital of the Venezuelan border state of Tachira, identified the final victim as Jose Luis Arenas, 21, a Colombian whose body was found near El Pinal. The bodies of several other victims were found there Saturday.

Mr. Arenas was one of 12 men, 10 of them Colombians, who were kidnapped Oct. 11 on a soccer field in southwestern Venezuela by unknown assailants. They were held for several days before being killed. Their bodies were found strewn around the countryside. Most of the Colombians were living on the Venezuelan side of the border.

One of those who was abducted, Manuel Junior Cortes, survived the massacre by feigning death. He is now a patient in a Caracas hospital. Colombian media have reported that Mr. Cortes described his captors as leftist guerrillas who accused the captives of being paramilitaries.

The killings added to tensions that have simmered for two years between the countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez refused Tuesday to allow a Colombian air force plane to land in San Cristobal to repatriate the bodies.

Mr. Chavez hinted that the Colombians might have been spies and revealed that his government last month arrested a Department of Administrative Security agent, Colombia's equivalent of the FBI. He said Venezuela will try him on espionage charges.

Neither Venezuelan nor Colombian officials have said who they think was behind the killings. Theories include drug traffickers, paramilitaries and the Colombian guerrilla groups ELN and FARC.

Colombian officials and family members said the victims were playing pick-up soccer.

First Published: October 29, 2009, 4:00 a.m.