The rescue operation to retrieve Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and transport her to Norway in time to receive her Nobel Peace Prize involved a complex series of complications and several components, on land, sea and in the air.
The mission, called Operation Golden Dynamite, was led by Bryan Stern, a U.S. special forces veteran and founder of the Tampa-based Gray Bull Rescue Foundation, which specializes in high-risk rescue missions and evacuations, particularly from conflict and disaster areas.
Getting her out of Venezuela, where she is considered a fugitive by President Nicolás Maduro, required disguises, deception, navigating rough seas and arranging flight options.
US secret team leader describes ‘dangerous’ mission to rescue Venezuelan opposition leader
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures at a protest ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro for his third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, January 9, 2025. (Maxwell Briceno/Reuters)
Machado has been hiding in Venezuela since Maduro won a highly controversial election last year and had not been seen in public for months.
Stern emphasized that the US government was not involved in the operation.
His team had built up a presence in the Caribbean, Venezuela and the neighboring island of Aruba in preparation for operations in the South American region.
The biggest challenge, Stern said, was getting Machado out of the country, even though she was a well-known figure there. To get her from her home to a “landing site on the beach,” his team reportedly did “all kinds of things designed to cause a little confusion.”
“Everything we could think of that we thought could hide her face… was used.” Stern said. “Everything we could think of, her digital signature, her physical signature. In addition, we have carried out a number of deception operations on the ground. We made some noise in some places to make people think something was happening that wasn’t happening.”
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Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro brandishes a sword said to have belonged to independence hero Simon Bolivar during a civil-military event at the military academy in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, November 25, 2025. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
The maritime operation got off to a rough start, Stern said. Of the two boats deployed for the mission, the vessel that physically retrieved Machado reportedly lost its GPS in the turbulent seas and suffered a mechanical failure that delayed the operation. The team was forced to continue into the dead of night in “pitch black darkness,” navigating seas so violent that one of Stern’s veteran operators reportedly vomited for nine hours.
Reaching the meeting point added another layer of difficulty. Stern’s boat and Machado’s ship had to find each other in pitch-black seas while maintaining radio silence to avoid detection, eventually locating each other with a flashlight.
Stern said he had to remain cautious, fearing that the approaching boat could have been a trap by Venezuelan forces. To confirm it was safe to continue, his larger ship circled Machado’s boat and shone lights on the crew.
After Stern physically pulled Machado onto his boat, he warned the rest of the team that Machado had been 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,” Stern said. ‘Personally, she is a hero of mine. She’s a hero of mine. I’ve been following her for years.’
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway early Thursday, December 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Once in international waters, the new concern avoided any appearance that they had kidnapped a Venezuelan, which would have given the government any justification to attack.
‘They lie. They could have killed us for any reason,” Stern said. “We’re in the middle of the ocean and there’s no one around to see the truth… we’re scared, we’re nervous, we’re on the run and we’re making a big deal out of getting to the appointment.”
Stern ordered his boat captain to drive full throttle and not stop for anything, for fear of being chased by the Venezuelan regime.
“My boatman, I told him I don’t care, I don’t care who comes,” Stern said. ‘You don’t stop. You don’t stop. I don’t care, I don’t care who. You don’t stop at all. Let them chase us if they have to. We have to get to land.’
At one point during the escape, two F-18 fighter jets reportedly flew overhead. Stern described the moment as a potential complication because they could not determine whether the jets were hostile or friendly, although he noted that this was likely not part of the Navy’s coordination.
“There’s an aircraft carrier in the Caribbean that drops planes every twenty minutes. I don’t know,” Stern said. “I can tell you that no one in the Navy said, ‘Don’t worry, brother, we sent two F-18s to cover you.'”
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The maritime team successfully brought Machado to safety. Stern said his team had also prepared for a possible air extraction, but that plan was abandoned after a last-minute change on Machado’s part. Instead, the final flight to Norway was arranged by her personal network using a friend’s private jet, culminating in her safe arrival.
While Gray Bull Rescue has conducted operations in high-threat areas such as Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Haiti, Stern said Machado’s extraction was a unique challenge, describing it as “overwhelmingly” the most complicated mission in the organization’s 800-mission history.
