Special forces veteran Bryan Stern says he told US defence officials some of his planned route to reduce airstrike risk

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 María 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.

Nobel peace laureate’s decision to flee on people-smuggling route is highly symbolic, but will her influence wane if unable to return?

• Venezuelan Nobel laureate reunited with family after perilous journey to receive prize

Thousands of Venezuelan migrants have braved the seas off Falcón state in recent years, fleeing their shattered homeland towards the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao in rickety wooden boats called yolas. Many lost their lives chasing a brighter future after their overcrowded vessels capsized or were smashed apart by rocks.

This week, the opposition leader María Corina Machado got a taste of that perilous journey herself, as the Nobel laureate began her surreptitious 5,500-mile-plus odyssey from her authoritarian homeland to Norway to collect her peace prize.