This was the rescue on the high seas of the Venezuelan leader

The video has been disseminated by the organization itself through its social networks and in it you can see how the activists detect the boat in which Machado was traveling, apparently adrift, in the sea. Shortly before, one of them had defined the operation as “the great enchilada” after several months of preparation.

“It’s them, it’s them,” they say after detecting the boat in which the opposition leader is traveling with a broken vertebra, as she herself explained.

Machado’s departure to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, after more than a year of hiding, was neither a diplomatic trip nor a carefully planned international tour.

It was an escape and, like any escape from an authoritarian regime, was not without riskssilences and logistics that reveal the extent to which power in Caracas fears symbols.

Although the Caribbean is not a rough sea, the currents played tricks on it. She herself has acknowledged that she lived some “very intense hours” in which she felt “real risk” for her life.

The strong winds and waves caused the small fishing boat to rock and become cut off.

“I got hurt because the waves were very strong, waves of more than two meters with a lot of wind and we got lost at sea, we lost the GPS signal. The satellite phone didn’t work either,” Machado said this Friday in Washington.

Once rescued from the boat, she was transferred to a second boat, piloted by members of Gray Bull Rescue, which sailed to the Curacao island.

The organization responsible for her rescue is nonprofit, veteran-led, and donor-funded. Their mission is carried out in those areas where their government or traditional aid cannot reach.

“As the threats against Machado intensified, his security deteriorated rapidly. Actively persecuted by the regime Nicolas Madurodrug criminal networks and hostile intelligence services, faced constant surveillance and increasing restrictions on movement,” explains Gray Bull Rescue on its website.

In addition, his enormous visibility as the main opposition leader “significantly increased the risk” for his departure from Venezuela.

“Conventional diplomatic and commercial evacuation routes were compromised or no longer viable. With the operational timeline shortening and the likelihood of detention or interception increasing, remaining in place was no longer a viable option. Any delay would have put his life in greater danger. and would have prevented remaining opportunities for safe evacuation,” the organization says.

For this reason, as they maintain, they launched a “discreet extraction plan under extreme political sensitivity and operational pressure”, threatened at all times by a “high probability of interception by traditional routes”.

This situation led to them opting “for maritime exfiltration to reduce predictability and minimize exposure.”

To achieve this, they put in place a team led by veterans that “coordinated intelligence analysis, logistics planning and secure communications to synchronize movement in multiple domains.”

The operation “took place under constant risk of surveillance and required precision timing, disciplined execution and continuous adaptation to changing conditions.”

“Every decision had consequences. The margin of error was practically zero“, they maintain.

Despite all the risks, Machado managed to leave the South American country, reach Curacao and embark on a trip that, for now, has Washington as the penultimate stop.

Now, as she herself has explained, she will try to return to Venezuela, where Delcy Rodríguez serves as interim president with the approval of Washington.