Nobel peace laureate María Corina Machado greets supporters from a balcony of the Grand Lodge in Oslo, Norway, within the early hours of Dec 11, 2025.
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — It is a unprecedented achievement to win the Nobel Peace Prize. However for this 12 months’s laureate, even attending to the ceremony was a feat of its personal.
María Corina Machado spent greater than a 12 months in hiding after her opposition motion defeated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in final 12 months’s election by a large margin, in response to voting information validated by worldwide observers. Maduro refused to depart workplace and ordered a large crackdown on the opposition.
Getting Machado out of Venezuela and safely to Oslo required an operation worthy of a thriller. On the middle of that mission was U.S. Particular Forces Veteran Bryan Stern, the bearded, broad-shouldered founding father of Gray Bull Rescue Basis. Stern and his workforce of U.S. navy veterans have pulled off a whole lot of extractions world wide. However this one, he says, was completely different.
“She’s the second hottest particular person within the Western Hemisphere after Maduro,” he stated.” Due to that signature, that is what made this operation very laborious.”
Stern and his workforce had solely per week to plan Machado’s escape, a mission they known 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.
However they needed to be cautious. The U.S. navy has constructed up a big presence off Venezuela’s coast, destroying almost two dozen alleged narco-trafficking boats in current months, killing not less than 87 individuals. Stern would not talk about particulars, however says he coordinated with U.S. officers who had 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 massive large boat with massive engines that might go quick and minimize by way of waves,” he stated. “That is what the narcos use — and the U.S. navy 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 had 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. Every crew frightened 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 seems to be skittish approaching one another in the dark at sea. In 10-foot waves? That is scary stuff.”
Lastly, as soon as they had been shut sufficient to listen to each other, a voice minimize throughout the water.
“It is 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 broadly reported to be Curaçao — was mercifully easy. A non-public aircraft was ready to take her the remainder of the way in which to Oslo.
Stern says Machado was more durable 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 combat for democratic change for years. He’d at all times assumed Venezuela’s “Iron Woman” obtained her nickname from her political steeliness. However after that evening, he says it is one thing extra.
“She’s gnarly,” he stated, laughing. “Fairly superior.”
