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.