'I’m alive': Footage of Machado’s daring escape from Venezuela released | Watch

(Screengrab of the footage)

A newly released video documents the covert operation, led by a US-based rescue team, that helped Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado escape the country by boat back in December.

The previously unseen video released Friday by Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based team of US Special Operations veterans, shows the moment Machado was lifted from her fishing boat into a rescuers’ craft during Operation Golden Dynamite.

Machado left Venezuela in early December after almost a year in hiding so she could accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. She boarded a boat from the Venezuelan coast and sailed to a rendezvous point in the Caribbean Sea. There, she was picked up by Grey Bull founder and special forces veteran Bryan Stern and his team, who were waiting for her on another boat, according to a report by CNN.

🚨NEVER BEFORE SEEN VIDEO of Maria Machado’s rescue from Venezuela before Maduro was captured.

She was secretly smuggled through guarded checkpoints by a Tampa-based nonprofit group of Special Operations Veterans called @greybullrescue in Operation Golden Dynamite. If Maduro’s… https://t.co/GXy7urFljkpic.twitter.com/bw5e6F84o6 — DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 16, 2026

The over two-minute video shows the moment Machado reached and boarded the second vessel in the middle of the night. “That’s them, that’s them, that’s them,” Stern is heard saying as lights from Machado’s boat appear in the distance and approach his vessel.

After confirming Machado’s identity, Stern is heard helping her board his boat. “Hi, María. My name is Bryan. Nice to meet you. I got you,” he says as she gets on. “So wet and so cold,” she’s heard saying in the video.

The video then cuts to Machado wearing a dark jacket and hat, speaking directly to the camera: “I am María Corina Machado. I’m alive. I’m safe and very grateful to Grey Bull.”

The dramatic clip cuts to stills of Machado wrapped in a dark jacket and hat, smiling at her rescuers. Over the images, Stern’s voice confirms their success: “Jackpot, jackpot, jackpot. Objective Golden Dynamite.”

According to the rescue team of Grey Bull, the extraction began in early December and lasted nearly 16 hours, with stormy seas knocking out GPS and communication equipment. Stern’s team had to find her small boat in rough waters off Venezuela’s coast and bring her aboard, ultimately ferrying her to a larger vessel bound for Curacao before she flew on to her Nobel ceremony in Oslo.

Machado spent almost a year in hiding inside Venezuela amid a crackdown by Nicolas Maduro’s government, only emerging for her historic Nobel Prize. The rescue video now adds a new chapter to her odyssey.

The Grey Bull rescue group conducts civilian extractions in many parts of the world. Led by Stern, it has carried out at least 800 operations.