Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are in U.S. custody.

The couple was seized in an aggressive U.S. military operation that began in the early morning hours of January 3rd.

It took American forces just over two hours, 150 aircraft, and the dismantling of Venezuela's air defenses.

So how did this happen?

And what happens next?

We broke all this down on NPR's National Security podcast, sources, and methods,

and we're going to share that episode in today's feed.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

It's considered this from NPR. After months of threats, months of warnings, seizing of alleged drug boats, targeting oil tankers, tensions between the United States and Venezuela have now come to this.

Overnight, President Trump ordered American forces to enter Venezuela and capture leader Nicholas Maduro and his wife,

Celia Flores. The two are now being extradited to New York, where they will face charges

related to alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracies. Meanwhile, President Trump

this morning said this. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious

transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have

the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.

Just stunning to hear those words. We are going to run the country.

Here to help me try to make sense of it, Greg Mairo, who covers national security. Hey, Greg.

Hi, Mary Louise.

And Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Hey, Mary Louise.

Tom, you start with what we know.

How did all this unfold?

Well, Trump gave the order last night around 11.

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