Colombia's Natural State?

The New York Times reports on Colombia,

The government of President Álvaro Uribe, the largest recipient of American aid outside the Middle East, has found itself ensnared in a widening scandal as revelations surface of a secret alliance between some of the president’s most prominent political supporters and paramilitary death squads.

According to North, Wallis, and Weingast, a natural state is an equilibrium in which access to power and wealth are limited to an elite coalition. Is Colombia a natural state, or is it something more primitive--a state of disorder, in which no one is safe?

Tyler comments that "paramilitaries are interest groups and traders, not just guys with guns." I think that NWW would say that this is always the case.

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