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'Alive, safe, grateful': Maria Machado's rescue from Venezuela by US-based team caught on camera
Maria Machado had left Venezuela in December to be in Norway so she could accept her Nobel Peace Prize 2025, the honour she recently presented to Donald Trump.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was rescued from her country back in December after over an year of being in hiding. A dramatic video of her rescue facilitated by a US-based team has now surfaced, showing how the leader made her way out of Venezuela.
Machado had left Venezuela in December to be in Norway so she could accept her Nobel Peace Prize 2025, the honour she recently presented to US President Donald Trump.
Weeks after she left Venezuela, Grey Bull Rescue, a US-based team that helped her, released a video of her dramatic escape.
According to a CNN report, Machado had boarded a boat from the Venezuelan coast to a rendezvous point in the Caribbean Sea where Bryan Stern, a US special forces veteran who heads the Grey Bull Rescue met her in another boat.
The now-viral clip shows the moment Machado met Stern and hopped abord the second boat. “Do you have a suitcase or a bag?”, a person could be heard asking Machado, who appeared to be on another boat. “I have a bag,” she replied.
The following moments couldn't be filmed properly due to the darkness. However, Machado and Stern could be heard introducing themselves to each other in the background audio.
Machado then boarded the second boat, caught hold of the camera and said: “I am María Corina Machado. I’m alive. I’m safe and very grateful to Grey Bull.” She was seen waring a dark jacket and a hat in the clip.
Her rescue from Venezuela came weeks before the US forces led a dead-of-night operation in Caracas earlier this month and captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and fellow leader Cilia Flores.
Maria Machado came back into the spotlight following the US operation in Venezuela, with many speculating she could take over as the new Venezuelan President.
However, in the days that followed, Donald Trump declared himself as the ‘Acting President’ of Venezuela. It was later reported that Trump “chose” Delcy Rodriguez to become the interim president of Venezuela.
In a move that came as a surprise to many, Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize 2025 medal to Donald Trump, saying the gesture was made as a “recognition for his unique commitment with (Venezuela's) freedom". However, the Nobel Foundation later clarified that prizes cannot be “symbolically” given to others.
