The rescue operation to remove opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado from Venezuela included disguises, two boats in rough seas and a flight, according to what the man who claims to have directed it told the BBC.
Dubbed “Operation Golden Dynamite,” the dangerous journey was cold, wet and long, but the “formidable” Machado didn’t complain once, according to Bryan Stern, founder of the Gray Bull Rescue Foundation.
“The sea is very rough. It’s completely dark. We use flashlights to communicate. It’s very scary, a lot of things can go wrong.”
Despite the risks, everything turned out well. Machado arrived safely in Oslo, Norway, to collect her Nobel Peace Prize just before midnight on Wednesday.
Having lived in hiding in her own country since last year’s controversial elections in Venezuela, Machado had not appeared in public since January. Her adult children, whom she had not seen in two years, were in Oslo to greet her.
Gray Bull specializes in rescue and evacuation missions, especially in conflict and disaster zones. A representative of Machado’s team confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s media partner in the United States, that the organization was behind his rescue operation.
Stern explained that Gray Bull had been consolidating its presence in the Caribbean for months, including Venezuela and the neighboring island of Aruba, to prepare for possible operations in Venezuela.
“We have been building infrastructure on the ground in Venezuela designed to get Americans, allies, British and others out if war starts in Venezuela,” he told the BBC.
Speculation about possible US military action against Venezuela has been growing after US President Donald Trump called on President Maduro to leave office, accusing him of sending narcotics and murderers to the United States.
According to Stern, the challenge in this case was to remove someone as well-known as María Corina Machado, a very popular name in Venezuela for the opposition, from the country.
None of the infrastructure his company had built in the country, he said, was “designed for the second most popular person in the damn country with a target on his back.”
When he first came into contact with Machado’s team, they initially did not reveal his identity to him, but he claimed that he was 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 her out of Venezuela, after the initial plan “didn’t go well,” he said.
The operation was called “Golden Dynamite” because “(Alfred) Nobel invented dynamite” and Machado was trying to reach Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize.
Things moved quickly. Stern said he spoke with the team on Friday, they deployed on Sunday and by Tuesday they had completed their mission.
His team had explored several possibilities to get Machado out of the country and settled on a plan that involved a tumultuous 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 off the coast to a slightly larger boat, where she was reunited with him.
The trip was made in “very rough seas”, with waves up to 3 meters high, in “total darkness”, according to what he said.
“The trip was not pleasant. It was cold, it was raining a lot, we were soaked, the waves were very strong, and we took advantage of that. We took her to the mainland, to where her plane was, and she flew to Norway.”
Throughout the trip, several measures were taken to hide and disguise his face and his “digital” profile, as this is a well-known policy.
“The biometric threat is very real,” he said, adding that steps 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 didn’t complain once,” she said, laughing, acknowledging that the operation was very dangerous because the water “is unforgiving.”
“If I drive a boat and my engine breaks down, I’ll have to swim to Venezuela.”
When asked how he could guarantee the safety of the Venezuelans who helped in the operation, Stern responded that they kept their identities secret and that “we [Grey Bull] “We do a lot of covert operations.”
Many of those he helped didn’t even realize they were working for him, Stern said, while others think they “know the whole story,” but they really don’t.
“There are people who did things that were benign from their perspective, but from ours were mission-critical.”
He claimed that the operation was funded by donors, and not the US government: “We have never received a thank you note from the US government, much less a dollar.”
Stern assured that he coordinated with some national states and with the intelligence and diplomatic services of several countries. This included alerting the United States “informally.”
Machado has said he intends to return to Venezuela, but Stern claims he advised him not to.
“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 for her people.
“I wish he wouldn’t come back, but I have a feeling he will.”
