Venezuela ? Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to expand Tehran’s influence in Latin America and deepen his alliance with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez on Wednesday in a visit that gave him a platform to defend his country’s nuclear program.

Both leaders roundly denounced U.S. “imperialism,” and Chavez also called Israel “a murderous arm of the Yankee empire.”

Chavez rebuked Israeli President Shimon Peres for his recent prediction that the people of Venezuela and Iran will soon make their leaders disappear.

“What the president of Israel said, we take it as a threat,” Chavez said, standing beside Ahmadinejad outside the presidential palace.

Ahmadinejad’s visit triggered small protests and was condemned by Chavez opponents and Venezuela’s Jewish community. Students protested outside a Caracas hotel where Ahmadinejad was thought to be staying, and another group outside the Iranian Embassy shouted, “We don’t want him, go away!”

Chavez welcomed Ahmadinejad saying both countries are withstanding threats from “the same empire” — the United States. Ahmadinejad praised Chavez saying he is “withstanding the aggressions of imperialism like a mountain,” and that the countries are like two soldiers in the same battle trench.