Southcom invented new missions to justify its own continuation

Evidence

In fact, the persistence of the base was due not just to bureaucratic inertia. There were also concerted efforts to create new missions and justifications for the supposedly temporary base and for the military’s entire Southern Command. After the Cold War, the combatant command responsible for Latin America found itself marginalized and with little to do. Southcom discovered its salvation in disaster and drugs. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 297

Categorization

• SEED: A strong angle: how military commands engineer their own survival by manufacturing new threats and missions when their original purpose disappears.