The author traces the traditional role of coca in Peruvian society and culture and then considers the development of Peru's high jungle on the eastern slopes of the Andes and in the Upper Huallaga Valley during the 1960's, the subsequent cocaine boom, and the effects of this boom on Peru and the high jungle region. The paper then focuses on Sendero Luminoso and its changing role in the Upper Huallaga Valley and other coca production areas, with attention to its future threat to the Peruvian state. In the latter case, noted Peruvian Sendero watcher Carlos Tapia stated in a recent television interview that regional command by Sendero in the Valley had been operating with complete autonomy since 1990. If this is correct, the disintegration of Sendero into its regional components is much further along than any analyst has yet suggested. It also means that the centralizing impact of the rigid Maoist ideology has lost much of its power. In the Valley, then, this analysis portends a Sendero degenerating into nothing more than a Peruvian bandit gang that contends with both the Colombian Sicarios (drug-cartel imported gunmen) and the government for control. This result should give the government some significant advantages it did not have before. Most important, the problem will be redefined as narco-banditry rather than insurgency. 40 notes