Rubio: Venezuelan opposition refugees have been rescued from a Caracas embassy and are in the U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday night that five leading Venezuelan opposition figures sought by the country's dictatorship had been "rescued" from the Argentine embassy in Caracas — where they'd taken refuge last year — in a "precise" operation.

All of the "hostages," as Rubio described them on his X account, "are now safely on U.S. soil."

The group — whom the President-Dictator Nicolás Maduro's regime had accused of sedition, which human rights groups called a bogus charge — took asylum in the Argentine embassy in March of 2024, more than 400 days ago.

Those freed include top Machado aide Magalli Meda, Vente spokeswoman Claudia Macero, Vente international coordinator Pedro Urruchurtu, former opposition Congressman Omar González and election strategist Humberto Villalobos.

Rubio did not elaborate on what exactly the "rescue operation" entailed; what the U.S.'s exact involvement was, or if the Venezuelan government had been aware of it as well as part of a negotiation.

One person close to the freed opposition figures said he was told some regime intelligence agents did know about the operation "but decided not to confront those who were carrying it out."

In his statement, Rubio only expressed "gratitude to all personnel involved in this operation and to our partners who assisted in securing the safe liberation of these Venezuelan heroes."

READ MORE: Venezuela's dictatorship under scrutiny for human rights violations and corruption

On her X account, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado called the rescue "impeccable and epic."

Machado added that she hoped it would also lead to "liberating each one of [Venezuela's] 900 political prisoners from [the] tyranny" of Maduro's regime — which stole last summer's presidential election and then conducted a brutal crackdown on protesters.

A U.S. spokeswoman for Machado's political movement, Vente Venezuela, told WLRN Tuesday night she and other party aides had not yet been apprised of how the opposition refugees had been rescued.

But another spokesman, Edgard Simón Rodríguez, said on his X account that the "liberation...was the product of a special operation. There was no negotiation [with the Venezuelan government]. The U.S. was at the head of the rescue operation."

Rubio, however, did not make mention of that in his statement.

A sixth refugee, Fernando Martínez Mottola, left the embassy last December in ill health and died shortly after.

As of late Tuesday night, there was no response from the Maduro regime.