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\n Nobel peace laureate Mar\u00eda Corina Machado greets supporters from a balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, in the early hours of Dec 11, 2025.
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<\/p>\n ODD ANDERSEN\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n <\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil \u2014 It’s an extraordinary achievement to win the Nobel Peace Prize. But for this year’s laureate, even getting to the ceremony was a feat of its own.<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda Corina Machado spent more than a year in hiding after her opposition movement defeated Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in last year’s election by a wide margin, according to voting records validated by international observers. Maduro refused to leave office and ordered a massive crackdown on the opposition.<\/p>\n Getting Machado out of Venezuela and safely to Oslo required an operation worthy of a thriller. At the center of that mission was U.S. Special Forces Veteran Bryan Stern, the bearded, broad-shouldered founder of Grey Bull Rescue Foundation.<\/a> Stern and his team of U.S. military veterans have pulled off hundreds of extractions around the world. But this one, he says, was different.<\/p>\n