Watch: How a special team rescued Maria Corina Machado for Nobel Prize ceremony

A newly released video documents the covert operation that helped Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado escape the country by boat last month.

A short, previously unseen video released Friday by Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based team of US Special Operations veterans, shows the moment Machado was lifted from her fishing boat into a rescuers’ craft during Operation Golden Dynamite. The mission was designed to get her out of Venezuela so she could fly to Norway to collect her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

“That’s them, that’s them, that’s them,” Grey Bull founder Bryan Stern says in the grainy footage as lights appear in the distance. After the boats draw alongside each other, Stern greets Machado: “Hi, Mara. My name is Bryan. Nice to meet you. I got you.” Even in the dark, her voice comes through: “I am Mara Corina Machado. I’m alive. I’m safe and very grateful to Grey Bull.”

The dramatic clip cuts to stills of Machado wrapped in a dark jacket and hat, smiling at her rescuers. Over the images, Stern’s voice confirms their success: “Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot. Objective Golden Dynamite.”

Grey Bull says the extraction began in early December and lasted nearly 16 hours, with stormy seas knocking out GPS and communication equipment. Stern’s team had to find her small boat in rough waters off Venezuela’s coast and bring her aboard, ultimately ferrying her to a larger vessel bound for Curacao before she flew on to her Nobel ceremony in Oslo.

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