Bolivian Protests

Does anyone else find it odd that Bolivian peasants, miners and union activists are willing to strike (violently and repeatedly) over the rate of taxation that foreign firms must pay on extracted natural gas? What about the nationalization of the entire Bolivian oil and gas industry?

I find it very strange that people would leave their jobs, villages, towns and families to go to the capital city (La Paz) for the second time in as many years, defy police, and violently agitate to overthrow the government without some external force being the primary cause of the unrest.

It seems more likely that external nations or organizations (Cuba and Columbia's FARC, for examples of each type) would organize such unrest than that the somewhat wonkish topic of taxation rates on gas would rouse peasants from their farms to bring down the government -- twice.

The brewing civil war in Bolivia may be an externally-driven affair. If so, the winner of the spoils may be the group that can either seize control of the government or take advantage of the instability for long enough to maximize its time in the country. Remnants of Peru's Shining Path? I don't really have a feel for the trends among the radical groups active there, but I can forsee a potentially failed state on the horizon.

Any New Republicans wish to speculate?