Rough seas. An almost moonless night. A small fishing boat crosses a treacherous stretch of the Caribbean Sea, carrying valuable cargo and a target on board.
Those were the conditions Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado faced when she made the most dangerous part of her journey to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, according to the US Special Forces veteran who planned and helped her escape.
“There were 5- to 6-foot waves, maybe even bigger waves, and we were doing it in the middle of the night,” said Brian Stern, who heads the Tampa, Florida-based company. Gray Bull Rescue Foundationhe told NBC News. “It was pitch dark, there was almost no moonlight. We were all very cold and wet.”
But Machado didn’t lose her composure or her lunch, Stern said, as the boat heaved in the rough sea and made its way through waters targeted by recent U.S. missile attacks on suspected drug smuggling boats.
“She was fine,” Stern said. “They call her the Iron Lady for a reason.”
Stern called the evacuation “Operation Golden Dynamite.”
“She’s the most famous character we’ve ever rescued,” said Stern, who noted that this was his organization’s 800th mission.
Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for leading the opposition against the regime of powerful Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, said Thursday that she had received help from the U.S. government to leave her hideout in Venezuela and claim her award.
Stern insisted that the costs of the operation had been paid “by a series of unnamed donors” and that the US government was aware of what was going on but was not directly involved.
“We designed and executed the operation to extract Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela to a friendly country where she was airlifted to her next destination,” Stern said. “We were not appointed by anyone in the United States government.”
In fact, Stern added, “I have never received a letter of thanks, let alone a dollar, from the United States government.”
The White House did not respond to an email from NBC News requesting information about his possible involvement in Machado’s escape.
Stern said he began planning the mission on December 5.
“We really wanted to get her to the Nobel Prize ceremony on time,” he said. “But there were a number of obstacles.”
Getting Machado out of Venezuela would require concealing her appearance. Stern did not say or comment on exactly what they did to get her out Wall Street Journal account She at one point wore a wig.
“Her face was a problem because she is the most famous person in Venezuela outside of Maduro,” he said, noting that there are billboards with Machado’s image everywhere in Venezuela.
He said the Maduro regime was using biometrics of Machado’s face to try to determine her location.
“People in the Maduro regime call it the ‘hunt for Maria’ in the same way we talk about the ‘hunt for bin Laden,’” Stern said. “We had to use a lot of deception, even with some members of her team.”
Stern said he met Machado for the first time Tuesday evening. He did not say exactly when or where he met Machado, but it required her taking a small boat from a fishing village and transporting her out to sea to a somewhat larger fishing boat he was on.
“I was in the second stage of the process,” he said. “It got too close to Venezuela.”
He added that Machado’s departure, which was supposed to take place on Tuesday morning, was postponed until the evening due to an engine failure. What should have taken three or four hours turned into an ordeal lasting approximately 16 hours.
“I first met her at sea,” Stern said. “We used a fishing boat to transport her to her flight.”
Stern said the flight took off from Curacao, which is about 40 miles north of Venezuela and is an autonomous island that is part of the Netherlands.
“I would say we went through Curaçao,” Stern said. “You were not in Curacao. You never cleared immigration in Curacao.”
Stern said this was the most challenging task he and his group had undertaken. As for Machado, Stern said he’s a big fan.
“I’ll admit I’m flabbergasted,” he said. “She is a hero to me.”