Machado escape planner feared US strike on her vessel as it fled Venezuela

"The most dangerous moments came when salvation seemed finally assured. Many miles from land, the small fishing skiff carrying the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel prize laureate Maria Corina Machado had been lost at sea for hours, tossed by strong winds and 10ft waves. A further hazard was the ever present risk of an inadvertent airstrike by US warplanes hunting alleged cocaine smugglers."

"The relief was intense. There was a moment when I felt like there was real risk to my life, Machado told the Guardian in Oslo on Friday. But it was a very spiritual moment because in the end I felt like I was in God's hands and it would be in his hands. He decided for me to be here and able to hug my family and other families of political prisoners."

Maria Corina Machado undertook a clandestine 5,500-mile (8,850km) journey from Venezuela to Norway to receive a Nobel prize. A small fishing skiff carrying her was lost at sea for hours, battered by strong winds and 10ft waves and exposed to the risk of inadvertent US airstrikes targeting alleged cocaine smugglers. The skiff eventually contacted a larger vessel that took Machado to Curaçao, followed by a private jet via the US to Oslo. The evacuation was organised by Bryan Stern of the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation. Venezuela endures economic mayhem, hyperinflation, hunger and increasingly authoritarian rule under Nicolás Maduro.

Read at www.theguardian.com