-
- Author, Ione Wells
- Author title, BBC News South America correspondent
- Report from, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The rescue operation to get opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado out of Venezuela involved disguises, two boats over rough seas and a flight, the man who allegedly led it told the BBC.
The dangerous journey, dubbed Operation Golden Dynamite, was cold, wet and long, but the “terrifying” Machado never once complained, according to Bryan Stern, founder of the Gray Bull Rescue Foundation.
“The sea is very rough. It’s completely dark. We communicate with flashlights. It’s very scary, a lot can go wrong,” he remembers.
Despite the risks, everything went well. Machado arrived safely in Oslo, Norway, shortly before midnight on Wednesday to accept her Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado has been living in secret in her own country since Venezuela’s disputed elections last year and has not appeared in public since January.
Her adult children, whom she had not seen for two years, were in Oslo to greet her.
The Gray Bull Foundation specializes in rescue and evacuation operations, particularly in conflict and disaster areas.
A representative from Machado’s team confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s media partner in the US, that the organization was behind his rescue operation.
Stern said Gray Bull has been consolidating its presence in the Caribbean for months, including in Venezuela and the neighboring island of Aruba, in preparation for possible operations in the South American country.
“We have built up an infrastructure on the ground in Venezuela to get Americans, allies, British and others out of the country if war breaks out in the country,” he told the BBC.
Speculation about possible US military action against Venezuela is growing after US President Donald Trump called on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign from office, accusing him of sending drugs and murderers to the US.
According to Stern, the challenge in this case was to expel from the country a person as well-known as María Corina Machado, a name very popular in Venezuela among the opposition.
None of the infrastructure his company has built in the country was designed “for the second most popular person in the damn country with a target on his back,” he said.
image source, Lars Martin Hunstad/Bloomberg via Getty Images
When he first came into contact with Machado’s team, they initially did not reveal his identity to him, but he claimed to be able to guess it.
They contacted him in early December through a contact who knew Machado’s team, and this was apparently the second attempt to get them out of Venezuela after the original plan “didn’t go well,” he said.
The operation was called “Golden Dynamite” because “(Alfred) Nobel invented dynamite” and Machado was trying to get to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
Things happened quickly. Stern said he spoke with the team on Friday, Dec. 5, they deployed on Sunday and completed their mission on Tuesday.
His team had examined several options for getting Machado out of the country and had settled on a plan that involved a turbulent sea voyage.
To protect his future work in Venezuela, Stern can only reveal some details of the trip.
By land, they took Machado from the house where she was hiding to the pick-up point of a small boat, which took her offshore to a slightly larger boat where she was reunited with him.
The trip took place in “very rough seas” with waves up to three meters high and in “complete darkness,” as he said.
“The trip was not pleasant. It was cold, there was a lot of rain, we were soaked, the waves were very strong and we took advantage of that. We took her to the mainland where her plane was and she flew to Norway.”
image source, Gray Bull Rescue/Handout
During the trip, various measures were taken to hide and obscure his face and his “digital” profile, as this is a well-known practice.
“The biometric threat is very real,” he said, adding that measures were taken to ensure she could not be located through her phone.
Stern said Maria Corina Machado behaved “impressively” despite the difficulties during the trip, accepting a sweater for warmth when he offered it but not asking for anything else.
“She was soaked and cold, but she never complained once,” she said with a laugh, admitting that the operation was very dangerous because the water was “unforgiving.”
“If I’m driving a boat and my engine breaks down, I have to swim to Venezuela.”
When asked how he could ensure the safety of the Venezuelans who helped in the operation, Stern replied that they kept their identities secret and that “we (Grey Bull) do a lot of covert operations.”
image source, Alyssa Joy/US Navy via Getty Images
Many of those he helped didn’t even know they worked for him, Stern said, while others thought they knew “the whole story,” but that’s actually not the case.
“There are people who have done things that from their point of view were harmless, but from our point of view they were business-critical.”
He claimed the operation was funded by donors, not the U.S. government: “We never received a thank you letter from the U.S. government, let alone a dollar.”
Stern assured that he is coordinating with some nation states as well as with the intelligence and diplomatic services of several countries. This also included “informally” alerting the USA.
Machado has said he intends to return to Venezuela, but Stern claims he advised him against it.
“I told her, ‘Don’t come back. You’re a mother. We need you.’ She will do what she has to do… I understand why she wants to come back because she is a hero to her people.
“I wish he wouldn’t come back, but I have a feeling he will.”
Subscribe here Subscribe to our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download and activate the latest version.
About The Author
