Headlines announcing the daring “rescue” of Maria Corina Machado from Venezuela and her harrowing trip to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize were spread all over the international media today, describing the opposition leader as nothing short of a courageous heroine, who escaped the “clandestinity” she said President Nicolas Maduro had imposed on her and managed to travel to Oslo at great personal risk. The Tampa, Florida-based Grey Bull Rescue Foundation, run by former U.S. elite special forces and intelligence operatives, carried out Machado’s “extraction.” Bryann Stern, the Foundation director, described Machado as a “rock star,” but in remarks to CBS News said he couldn’t reveal more about the rescue because “we still have other work to do in Venezuela, and we don’t want to put sources and methods and people who worked on this at risk.” He reported that “a few generous donors” financed the operation, but the U.S. was not involved.
Some media reported that Donald Trump had ordered the operation, but his personal involvement has not been confirmed. What is evident is that the drama surrounding Machado’s removal and transfer to Oslo have given her an international platform on which to promote her agenda for regime change in Venezuela. In the multiple press conferences and statements made in Oslo after her Dec. 11 arrival, she peddled the line that Trump had offered Maduro a way to leave Venezuela peacefully, but that Maduro had instead “declared war on the Venezuelan people” and continued with his criminal and narco-terrorist activity. She’s planning to travel to Washington and use her star power to do a tour of the U.S. and then of Ibero-America, to pose herself and the Venezuelan opposition as the only alternative for governing that country.
In contrast with the fawning media coverage of Machado today, the Argentine daily La Politica Online(LPO) provided a less favorable view of Machado highlighting her relationship with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who for years has demanded Maduro’s ouster. It turns out that Rubio has had a decade-long relationship with Machado, including promoting her as a candidate to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in August of 2024, together with a group of other Cuban-American legislators. The investigative publication Mision Verdad reported Nov. 20 that Rubio introduced Machado to some of the unsavory corporate energy and financial networks he’s linked to through his close ties to the Bush family.
According to LPO, Machado called Rubio from Oslo to urge him to do everything possible to help convince Trump that she, and the Venezuelan opposition, are really the best alternative to govern Venezuela. But, as this daily asserted, Trump’s relationship with Machado is said to be “glacial.” There was no official U.S. government official to greet her in Oslo and the White House role in helping her get out of Venezuela “was minimal.” So, Machado’s planned international tours are intended to provide the “impetus” for Trump to decide on the military operation against Venezuela, and according to LPO, for Trump to finally grant her the status to govern that otherwise “he doesn’t want to give her.” The President reportedly doubts that the opposition is capable of governing or controlling the Armed Forces which control key sectors of the economy. An ungovernable, Machado-run government would imply a need for a long U.S. military occupation that Trump wants no part of, recalling fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rubio’s promotion of Machado and military regime-change that would prove disastrous for the U.S. is coherent with his role in sabotaging U.S. peace negotiations with Russia.
