“Impeccable and Epic Operation”: Venezuela’s Opposition Leaders Rescued In U.S.-Coordinated Operation After 412 Days in Hiding

A great escape from Venezuela. Add this to the long list of brilliant, bombshell news the dying legacy media censored or ignored. They refuse to report good news and most especially good news that reflects on Trump. They are vile. Enemy of the people.

The U.S.-coordinated rescue this week of four hostages held by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. It’s an embarrassment to the regime, and a win for the Trump Administration, which took risks that Joe Biden shrank from.

The U.S. welcomes the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas.

Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S. soil. Maduro's illegitimate regime has undermined Venezuela's institutions, violated human…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 7, 2025

Five Venezuelan opposition members, Magalli Meda, Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar Gonzalez, Humberto Villalobos, and Claudia Macero, were recently rescued from Venezuela’s Argentine embassy in Caracas. They had been living in the embassy for more than a year, seeking refuge from arrest warrants issued by the Venezuelan government.

The five individuals are part of a larger group of opposition figures and advisors who had sought shelter in the embassy after the Venezuelan attorney general announced warrants for their arrest, according to The New York Times.

The five officials ran one of the most consequential presidential campaigns in the country’s history while sheltering at the Argentine diplomatic residence.

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she was thankful “to all those who made it possible”.

Machado hailed their escape as “an impeccable and epic operation for the freedom of five heroes”.

They were given permission to stay there by the government of Argentine President Javier Milei, whose country is among several that have disputed the results of Venezuela’s last election in July that gave Maduro a third term.

The Argentine foreign ministry thanked Rubio and the US government “for the successful operation that secured the freedom of the Venezuelan asylum seekers at our Embassy in Caracas”.

Last year, the opposition figures posted images and videos of officers from the country’s intelligence service surrounding the embassy complex, saying they were under “siege”.

The rescue of four hostages is an embarrassment to the Maduro regime in Venezuela, and a win for the Trump Administration. Congrats to President Trump and Secretary Rubio. https://t.co/zbzjFFi3iJ

— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) May 10, 2025

Venezuela opposition members who lived in embassy now in US, Rubio says

By Natalia Siniawski, Reuters, May 6, 2025:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday he welcomed the successful rescue of five Venezuelan opposition members holed up for political protect in the Argentine embassy in Caracas.
“Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S. soil,” Rubio said on X.

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The five people, close allies of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, have been living in the embassy since March 2024, after Venezuela’s attorney general accused them of conspiracy and warrants were issued for their arrests.

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Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Brazil’s government, which had been providing political protection to the embassy, said it had not yet been informed.

Rubio did not provide specific details about the operation.

Machado, meanwhile, hailed an “impeccable and epic operation” in a post X.

“We are going to free every one of our 900 imprisoned heroes,” Machado added in reference to different politicians and activists who have been detained in the last year.

The Argentine government said on X that it appreciated the successful operation that allowed the safe transfer of the five Venezuelans sheltered at the embassy to the U.S.

In December 2024, Fernando Martinez, another opposition advisor who had been living at the embassy handed himself in to the attorney general’s office. He died in February this year.

Officials regularly accuse the opposition of conspiring with countries such as the United States to commit terrorism, overthrow Maduro and attack Venezuela’s power grid. The opposition has always denied the accusations.

The Argentine residence is currently under Brazilian custody after Buenos Aires cut relations with Caracas over the 2024 election, which the opposition says it won and for which it has published ballot box level vote tallies.

Maduro was declared the winner by electoral authorities and the country’s top court, though authorities have not offered ballot box level tallies of the votes.