In 1993, Gabriel García Márquez was approached by his friends Maruja Pachón de Villamizar and Alberto Villamizar to write a book about Maruja's kidnapping ordeal. While working on the initial draft, García Márquez realized "it was impossible to separate her kidnapping from nine other abductions that occurred at the same time in Colombia." He decided to expand the scope of his book to include the stories of all the victims, extending the project to nearly three years. The outcome was News of a Kidnapping, first published in Spanish in 1996 and in English the following year. In this book, García Márquez undertakes the monumental task of narrating the kidnappings and captivity of ten individuals. He illustrates the reactions of their families and their efforts to secure the hostages' release, while also attempting to contextualize the entire episode within Colombia's prolonged battle against drugs and terrorism.

As a Nobel Laureate, García Márquez's fame ensured that the American media would pay immediate and significant attention to the book. Additionally, the drug issues of Colombia and the United States were—and continue to be—interconnected. The fear of extradition to the United States prompted Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín cartel, to order the kidnappings. Nevertheless, García Márquez deserves recognition for anchoring News of a Kidnapping in Colombian realities, as the violence inflicted by the drug trade on Colombian society is immense and often beyond American comprehension. The book portrays a world nearly as surreal as any of García Márquez's novels, potentially shocking to American readers but all too familiar to Colombians.