[4] Caballero was suspected of being the mastermind behind the kidnapping of the former Colombian minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Araújo in the city of Cartagena in December 2000 and escaped in 2006.
[5] In 2000, President Bill Clinton visited Cartagena de las Indias in part to stand by Colombia in solidarity for its long war.
[3] Martín Caballero was accused by Colombian authorities of being the man responsible behind the majority of kidnappings in the northern Caribbean region of Colombia, including the three United States citizens Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves.
Stansell, Thomas and Gonsalves were kidnapped when their Cessna Grand Caravan crashed while working for California Microwave Systems, which the U.S. Defense Department had contracted with to gather information about illicit coca and opium crops in Colombia.
[7] According to Colombian military intelligence Caballero ordered the incursion of the 37th Front of the FARC-EP in the corregimiento of Matuya in the municipality of Maria La Baja, Bolívar Department, in which the insurgents assaulted a farm, threatened the workers, demanded a ransom and stole some 140 cattle.