Nobel peace laureate María Corina Machado greets supporters from a balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, within the early hours of Dec 11, 2025.
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP by way of Getty Images
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ODD ANDERSEN/AFP by way of Getty Images
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — It’s a rare achievement to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But for this yr’s laureate, even attending to the ceremony was a feat of its personal.
María Corina Machado has spent greater than a yr in hiding after her opposition motion defeated President Nicolás Maduro in final yr’s election — a vote extensively considered as fraudulent. Getting her out of Venezuela and safely to Oslo required an operation worthy of a thriller.
At the middle of that mission was U.S. Special Forces Veteran Bryan Stern, the bearded, broad-shouldered founding father of Grey Bull Rescue Foundation. Stern and his staff of U.S. army veterans have pulled off a whole bunch of extractions around the globe. But this one, he says, was completely different.
“She’s the second hottest particular person within the Western Hemisphere after Maduro,” he stated. “Because of that signature, that is what made this operation very laborious.”
Stern and his staff had solely per week to plan Machado’s escape, a mission they referred to as Operation Golden Dynamite — a nod to Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize founder who additionally invented dynamite.
A land route was dominated out — too many checkpoints the place she’d be acknowledged. So, they determined to maneuver by sea.
But they needed to be cautious. The U.S. army has constructed up a big presence off Venezuela’s coast, destroying almost two dozen alleged narco-trafficking boats in latest months, killing at the least 87 individuals. Stern would not talk about particulars, however says he coordinated with U.S. officers who have been conscious they’d be working within the space.
He was cautious to keep away from utilizing a ship that might flip right into a goal. “I did not need a huge big boat with huge engines that might go quick and lower by means of waves,” he stated. “That’s what the narcos use — and the U.S. army likes to blow them up.”
Then their plan hit one other snag: Machado’s boat by no means arrived on the predetermined rendezvous level within the Caribbean Sea.
“We have been supposed to fulfill within the center, however when that could not occur, we pivoted and went to them,” Stern stated.
In pitch darkness, with 10-foot waves smashing the edges of each boats and solely flashlights to information them, nerves frayed. Each crew fearful the opposite may very well be cartel members, authorities brokers, or worse.
“I may very well be Maduro’s guys, I may very well be cartel guys — something actually,” Stern stated. “Everyone is skittish approaching one another at nighttime at sea. In 10-foot waves? This is horrifying stuff.”
Finally, as soon as they have been shut sufficient to listen to each other, a voice lower throughout the water.
“It’s me — María!”
Stern hauled her aboard. With the wind at their backs, the ultimate leg to a Caribbean island — which he declined to call, however is extensively reported to be Curaçao — was mercifully clean. A non-public airplane was ready to take her the remainder of the best way to Oslo.
Stern says Machado was harder than the crusty veterans serving to her escape.
“We’re all bitching and moaning — it is chilly, it is moist, we’re hungry, it is darkish,” he stated. “She did not complain as soon as.”
Stern admits he was a bit star struck by Machado. He’d adopted her struggle for democratic change for years. He’d all the time assumed Venezuela’s “Iron Lady” bought her nickname from her political steeliness. But after that night time, he says it is one thing extra.
“She’s gnarly,” he stated, laughing. “Pretty superior.”
