Back in September of 2002, I wrote the Terror, Inc. series of articles here on Winds of Change.NET. Part 2 took an especially close look at Colombia's FARC narco-guerillas as a likely model for future terrorist organizations, and other posts and comments have bandied about the idea that there is effectively an unrecognized narco-state in South America.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, to find this thesis strongly confirmed in the pages of... National Geographic magazine. Cocaine Country in the July 2004 issue describes a land with its own economy and institutions, where raw coca is the main unit of everyday currency. Predictably, FARC's professsed Marxism doesn't stop them from selling the farmers' raw product at a 1,000x markup.
The online version is only a 1-page excerpt (plus photos and field notes), and the entire article is worth reading in your local library.
I think you mean "raw coca", although chocolate is probably a drug of addiction too.
I am a subsriber and read that photo 'article' ... every page i asked the same question: "Why is this journalist still alive and free. I though FARC was into kidnapping. I guess they are looking for some good press or free advertisement. Odd.
I thought that was odd, too - but he had FARC's permission and support for this every step of the way. I don't understand exactly what FARC was trying to accomplish, myself, and NG's phtotojournalist was just as surprised.
Regardless, what emerges is a great piece of true investigative journalism.
With a stroke of the pen, the american president could sign into law the legalization of drugs.
And FARC would be wiped off the map. Without bullets, without smart bombs, without infiltrators or special forces troops.
Cut the legs from under the narco terrorists. A move analagous to making petroleum superfluous to the transportation industry--which would destroy the muslim terror support.
Conrad,
One can be done with the stroke of the pen. One can't.
Which do you think is which?
Marxism was never against profit. Just private profit. They understood the need for a state profit. The just never managed it.