U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Penn said earlier there appeared to have been ''official involvement'' in the protest, with some demonstrators wearing the credentials of state employees.
Brownfield noted Thursday that many protesters arrived in buses and the governor's office sent lunches, but he refused to elaborate, saying he did not want to speculate.....***
Wooed by reports of his crusades against poverty, globalisation and American imperialism, groups of visitors, nicknamed the "Sandalistas", are flocking to admire his policies at first hand.
Among the progressive pilgrims who have come to marvel are the American civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, the actor and United Nations "goodwill ambassador", Danny Glover, and Harry Belafonte, the Jamaican-American musician known as the king of calypso. Belafonte led a delegation to Caracas, the capital, in January, touring shanty towns before appearing on state television with Mr Chavez, chanting "Viva la revolución!"
At the same time, there is a growing crowd of students, academics and unreconstructed Marxists for whom a visit to Caracas offers an experience reminiscent of the jaunts peddled by Intourist, the Soviet-era travel agency.
Rather than relaxing in luxury hotels or trekking through the Andes, the most adventurous stay with families in the slums and take trips around shiny new health clinics, perhaps rounding off the day with an evening class in 21st century socialist theory.
"We have come to see the revolution. It is an experience of a lifetime," said Bjorn Hansen, 23, a political science student who has recently arrived with his girlfriend, Sitne Faerch, 24, from the Danish capital, Copenhagen. .............***