Maria Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, feared for her life during her secret journey from Venezuela to Norway to receive the award, she said on Friday.
"There were moments when I felt that there was a real risk to my life, and it was also a very spiritual moment because, in the end, I simply felt that I was in God's hands and that whatever would be, would be," she told reporters in Oslo.
She declined to give precise details about how she managed to leave Venezuela, where she has lived in hiding since last year, to protect those involved – following dramatic accounts of her journey in US media.
"We did get support from the United States government to get here," Machado told a press conference on Thursday, when asked by AFP about whether Washington had helped.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that she wore a wig and a disguise on the high-risk journey, leaving her hide-out in a Caracas suburb on Monday for a coastal fishing village, where she took a fishing skiff across the Caribbean Sea to Curacao.
The newspaper said the US military was informed to avoid the boat being targeted by airstrikes, given Washington's attempts to pile pressure on Venezuela with a major naval buildup in the region and strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.
The Wall Street Journal later reported that Machado and the small crew of the skiff had been left drifting after their GPS fell overboard in rough seas and a backup failed.
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As a result she did not meet the extraction team at the designated pickup point, prompting a search to find her in the Gulf of Venezuela.
'We were scared the entire time'
"This is a very high threat area," said Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue, which carried out the exfiltration of opposition figure Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela, in an interview with FRANCE 24’s Gavin Lee on Saturday.
“We were scared the entire time,” he added. Bryan Stern recalled meeting Machado out at sea after she left Venezuela. She boarded his boat for a 13-14 hour journey to an undisclosed location to catch a plane as part of a mission planned just four days earlier.
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"It feels surreal, but we know that this is temporary because my mother will return home and will be aside Venezuelans until her mission to free our country is realised," said Ana Corina Sosa about her mother, in another interview with FRANCE 24.
"I trust and I know that we are on the brink of freedom," she added.
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"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," Stern said on another interview with CBS.
A representative for Machado confirmed that Stern's company, Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, was behind the operation that began on Tuesday, CBS said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)