During the war, which began on April 24, 1965, Caamaño was one of the leaders in the movement to restore the democratically elected President Dr. Juan Bosch, who had been overthrown in a military coup d'état in September 1963.

His father was a prominent military man during the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, and he received the highest decorations of the regime, even holding the position of Secretary of State for the Armed Forces (Minister of Defense) from 1952 to 1955.

[4][5] During the civil war that began on April 24, 1965, he was one of the leaders in the movement to restore the democratically elected President Dr. Juan Bosch, who had been overthrown in a military coup d'état in September, 1963.

As the Constitucionalistas successfully seized and held Santo Domingo over the initial days of the uprising, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered an invasion by the U.S. military, dubbed as Operation Power Pack, stating that the lives of American citizens there needed to be protected.

[citation needed] He had a support group led by Amaury German Aristy that was expected to create the conditions for a victorious landing of Caamaño's commands in the Dominican Republic.

[citation needed] During late 1973, after several years staying low-profile, Caamaño led the landing of a small group of rebels at Playa Caracoles, near Azua and then into the mountains of the Cordillera Central, with the purpose of starting a peasant revolution to overthrow Dominican President Joaquín Balaguer.