María Corina Machado’s getaway from Venezuela involved a long, “scary” and very wet sea crossing in the dead of night with no lights, according to the American man who says he led the operation.

Bryan Stern, who heads a nonprofit rescue organisation, detailed the mission in an CBS interview published on Thursday after the Venezuelan opposition figure emerged in Norway after the Nobel peace prize ceremony.

“It was dangerous. It was scary,” said Stern, a US special forces veteran, describing dark and choppy conditions that also provided convenient cover for the escape.

He recalled meeting Machado out at sea after she left Venezuela , where she had been in hiding since August 2024 fearing persecution by President Nicolás Maduro.

She boarded his boat for a 13- to 14-hour journey to

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