WATCH: Newly Released Footage Shows Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado’s Rescue from Venezuela in December
Before the US military arrested Venezuelan Dictator Maduro in Operation Absolute Resolve earlier this month, opposition leader María Corina Machado was rescued and smuggled out of the country by a nonprofit veteran rescue organization in early December.
Wanted and in hiding from the Maduro Regime, Machado was extracted in the dead of night by Grey Bull Rescue, a veteran-led group that conducts global rescue operations for Americans and allies in war-zones, disaster zones, and hostile territories. According to the organization’s website, “Grey Bull Rescue was born during the failed U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021 — when we rescued Americans and allies left behind. Since then, we’ve conducted over 800 missions and safely evacuated thousands, including children, families, and even pets.”
Newly released footage from the more than 15-hour-long operation to rescue Machado shows part of the operation, where Grey Bull Founder and Chairman Bryan Stern, a special forces veteran and Purple Heart recipient, meets with another boat carrying Machado in the middle of the ocean to bring her to safety.
“I am María Corina Machado. I’m alive, I’m safe, and very grateful to Grey Bull,” Machado says on the camera after boarding the second boat, from which she was taken to safety from the Maduro regime.
WATCH:
Following the Jan 3 arrest of Maduro, Grey Bull said in a social media post,
Just a few weeks ago, Grey Bull Rescue conducted the daring extraction of Maria Corina Machado, the rightful leader of Venezuela, under the cover of night while being hunted by the brutal Maduro regime.
Last night, America’s most elite men and women from the Special Operations community…where our team hails from…conducted a surgical and beautifully executed large scale operation to bring Maduro (and his wife) to justice. We could not be prouder to be Americans right now.
U.S. SOF, like Grey Bull, conducted an operation leaving all the bad guys scratching their heads.
Earlier this week the Maduro regime unlawfully detained 5 American Citizens (which we predicted). We asked for Proof of Life which Maduro denied. Yet, this morning…the Maduro regime is asking America for Proof of Life of Maduro. My how the tables have turned.
Grey Bull has been operating in Latin America and the Caribbean for months. Grey Bull Rescue’s infrastructure, team, and talent are second to none as evidenced by this morning’s major success.
Many questions remain about the future. Certainly, the situation remains dangerous especially for Americans.
Our planes, helicopters, and boats are ready.
Per CBS:
It took an American private rescue team 15 to 16 hours to get Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado out of her country and safely on her way to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize, and to be reunited with her family on Wednesday. The vast majority of that time was spent in rough seas, and the man who led the operation and met Machado on a boat told CBS News, “no one was enjoying that ride, especially Maria!”
“No one’s blood pressure was low, throughout any phase of this operation, including mine,” said Bryan Stern, a U.S. special forces veteran who heads the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation. “It was dangerous. It was scary. The sea conditions were ideal for us, but certainly not water that you would want to be on … the higher the waves, the harder it is for radar to see. That’s how it works.”
In an interview Wednesday with CBS News, Stern gave some insight into the complex operation his organization undertook to get Machado out of Venezuela and on a plane to Norway, where she was reunited with her children for the first time in about two years. A representative for Machado confirmed to CBS News on Thursday that Grey Bull was behind the rescue operation that began on Tuesday.
Of the hundreds of rescues his organization has carried out, he said this was both one of the most challenging and the most rewarding. Machado has lived in hiding in her own country for almost a year, fearing persecution by the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, who is under increasing pressure from President Trump amid a U.S. military buildup off his shores.
“She has a very large target on her back,” Stern said of Machado. “This is not a random shopkeeper who doesn’t wanna be in Venezuela anymore. This is moving around a rock star.”
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Machado met with President Trump at the White House on Thursday, weeks after Maduro’s ouster.
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