Mexico withheld permission for American military and intelligence deployments from 1990 to 2025 (DEA and other law enforcement was allowed), but they changed recently.
> The parent claimed that this has never happened before because it would have been considered an act of war.
Because it has never happened before in Mexico. It has been political suicide to even consider allowing foreign troops in Mexico because of the memory of the French Occupation.
You cannot treat "Latin America" as a monolith. Each country has a different sociopolitical background and history.
[0] - https://www.southcom.mil/About/History/SOUTHCOMs-60th-Annive...
But let's not fool ourselves. These are American operations taking place in Mexican soil (with the cooperation of the Mexican forces of course, it was not an attack against Mexico).
All including dea with intel and actual boots in Mexico.
The semantics comment was on the point that this is not technically the US military. Sure it is not the military it just has access to its personel and equipment.
It does not have access to the same equipment or (more critically) personel - especially in intelligence, as intelligence ops were not allowed either until the Sheinbaum admin.
This is not the case. The US intelligence has been deploying forces in Latin America against cartels for long long time.