TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa Bay nonprofit that has rescued Americans from conflict zones around the world is being honored for its most dangerous mission yet — saving Venezuela's opposition leader from the country's authoritarian regime.
Tampa Bay 28 reporter Annette Gutierrez has been following the story of Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based organization that executes missions worldwide, which successfully rescued Maria Corina Machado in December. Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was being pursued by Venezuela's ousted dictator, Nicolas Maduro, after many believed she won the country's most recent election and should be its next leader.
WATCH: Tampa nonprofit honored for rescuing Venezuelan opposition leader from Maduro regime
Grey Bull Rescue founder, Bryan Stern said explained just how dangerous the mission was.
"When we were doing this operation, we were afraid of Mother Nature," Stern said. "We did this on land and on water, but water is the most dangerous domain. The seas were horrible. We were in 10-foot seas in a 30-foot boat, which is miserable. We had the US military dropping bombs on boats that looked just like ours, so that's a real problem. And on the streets we have people who are — you don't know who to trust."
Tampa Bay 28 has previously reported on Grey Bull Rescue's work extracting Americans from Israel, Jamaica, and Haiti.
On Tuesday, City Council member Luis Viera joined the Venezuela-USA Foundation of Tampa Bay in honoring Grey Bull Rescue for taking on the perilous mission to save Machado.
"Maria Corina Machado represent the freedom, represent democracy," said Leon Granado, the president of Venezuela-USA Foundation of Tampa Bay.
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