The intricate rescue operation to extract María Corina Machado and transport her to Norway for her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance involved a complex series of challenges and various elements across land, sea, and air.
This mission, named Operation Golden Dynamite, was led by Bryan Stern, a U.S. special forces veteran and founder of the Tampa-based Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, an organization specializing in high-risk rescue and evacuation missions, particularly from conflict and disaster zones.
Her extraction from Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro considers her a fugitive, necessitated disguises, deception, navigating turbulent seas, and coordinating flight options.
“She’s perceived by the Maduro regime the way we perceived Osama bin Laden, like that,” Stern told . “That level of manhunt if you will.”
Machado had been in hiding in Venezuela since Maduro’s highly disputed election victory last year and had not appeared publicly for months.
Stern emphasized that the U.S. government was not involved in the operation.
His team had been establishing a presence in Venezuela and the neighboring island of Aruba in preparation for operations within the South American region.
The greatest hurdle, Stern explained, was moving Machado out of the country despite her widespread recognition. To transport her from her residence to a “beach landing site,” his team reportedly employed “all kinds of things designed to create a little bit of confusion.”
“Anything that we could have possibly think of that we thought could hide her face … was employed.” Stern said. “Anything we could think of, her digital signature, her physical signature. On top of that, we did some deception operations on the ground. We made some noise in some places designed to get people to think something was happening that wasn’t.”
The maritime phase of the operation began with difficulties, Stern recounted. Of the two boats deployed, the vessel physically extracting Machado reportedly lost its GPS in the rough seas and experienced a mechanical issue, delaying the mission. The team was compelled to proceed into the “dead of night” in “pitch-black darkness,” navigating such violent seas that one of Stern’s experienced operators reportedly vomited for nine consecutive hours.
Reaching the designated rendezvous point presented another layer of complexity. Stern’s boat and Machado’s vessel had to locate each other in while maintaining radio silence to avoid detection, ultimately finding one another using flashlights.
Stern stated he had to remain vigilant, fearing the approaching boat might be a trap set by Venezuelan forces. To confirm it was safe to proceed, his larger vessel circled Machado’s boat and illuminated the crew with lights.
After Stern physically pulled Machado onto his boat, he then notified the rest of the team that Machado was secured: “Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot.”
“Now we are on the run with Maria Corina Machado, the most wanted woman in the Western Hemisphere, on my boat,” he said.
“I have the most wanted person in the Western hemisphere that I’m trying to move around,” Stern said. “Personally, she’s . She’s a hero of mine. I’ve been tracking her for years.”
Once in international waters, the new concern was to avoid any appearance of having kidnapped a Venezuelan, which could have provided the government with justification for an attack.
“They lie. They could have killed us for any reason,” Stern said. “We’re in the middle of the d— ocean and there’s no one around to see the truth … we are scared, we are nervous, we’re on the run and we floor it getting to the rendezvous.”
Stern instructed his boat captain to drive at full throttle and not stop for anything, fearing pursuit by the Venezuelan regime.
“My boat guy, I told him I don’t care, I don’t care who comes,” Stern said. “You don’t stop. You do not stop. I don’t care, I don’t care who. You do not stop at all. Let them chase us if they have to. We have got to get to land.”
At one point during the escape, two reportedly flew overhead. Stern described this moment as a potential complication, as they could not determine if the jets were hostile or friendly, though he noted it was likely not part of any Navy coordination.
“There’s an aircraft carrier in the Caribbean throwing airplanes off every twenty minutes. I don’t know,” Stern said. “I can tell you that nobody in the Navy said, ‘Don’t worry, brother, we sent two F-18s to cover you.'”
The maritime team successfully delivered Machado to safety. Stern mentioned that his team had also prepared for a possible air extraction, but that plan was abandoned following a last-minute change on Machado’s side. Instead, the final was arranged by her personal network using a friend’s private jet, culminating in her safe arrival.
While Grey Bull Rescue has conducted operations in high-threat environments such as Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Haiti, Stern stated that the extraction of Machado was uniquely challenging, describing it as “overwhelmingly” the most complicated mission in the organization’s 800-mission history.