Overview
- Claudia Macero, Maria Corina Machado’s spokeswoman, confirmed she sustained a vertebra fracture during her clandestine journey out of Venezuela.
- Norway’s Aftenposten reported the injury occurred on a rough small-boat crossing and that doctors assessed her at Oslo University Hospital in Ulleval.
- Machado missed the Dec. 10 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and reached Oslo early on Dec. 11, later greeting supporters despite the injury.
- Accounts describe disguises, passage through about 10 military checkpoints to Venezuela’s coast, a skiff to Curaçao, and a private flight with a brief U.S. stop.
- Bryan Stern, who leads a rescue nonprofit, says he took part in an operation dubbed “Golden Dynamite,” though official backing for the extraction has not been detailed.