[3] As a female journalist working in a culture that valued machismo, she has said that she was initially given poorer quality assignments, but overcame this obstacle by investigating "key issues" on her own time and becoming a "happy workaholic".
[3] In 1997, she was granted a rare interview with Carlos Castaño, leader of one of Colombia's right-wing paramilitary groups, the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Córdoba and Urabá.
To meet Castaño, Caballero was forced to ride on horseback for eight hours through mountainous terrain, injuring her back severely enough that she later required surgery for a compressed nerve.
[4] In 1999, Caballero received repeated death threats on her home answering machine; in addition, a security officer from her building warned her that a man was waiting near her apartment with a gun.
[6] CPJ Board Chairman Gene Roberts praised Cabellero and the other recipients as "courageous journalists who faced jail, physical harm and even death, simply for doing their work".