About 200 demonstrators marched through Venezuela's capital on Monday to protest what they called "imperialist terrorism" by the US since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The marchers -- many of them supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and some of Arab descent -- carried Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian flags, along with signs calling for peace in the Middle East and opposing what they called "Zionist aggression" by Israel in Lebanon and Palestine.
Many criticized the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Islam Abed El Rohman, a 15-year-old of Palestinian descent, said she was worried by the low turnout at the protest, saying few appeared concerned by the plight of Palestinians and Lebanese in the Middle East.
"We want them to hear our voice, for people to support us. We want peace," she said.
"We are basically Palestinian refugees. My grandfather came [to Venezuela] after 1948, when the problems with confiscated land began," she said.
Chavez, whose government launched a nationwide fundraising drive for rebuilding Lebanon and for the Palestinian people, has blamed the US and Israel for the recent violence in the Middle East.
The Venezuelan president said last month that he was withdrawing his country's top diplomat in Israel to protest its attacks in Lebanon and its actions toward the Palestinians.
Israel, which responded by calling home its ambassador, has criticized what it calls Chavez's "one-sided policy" and "wild slurs."
Some protesters said Washington has used the so-called war on terror as an excuse to violate human rights and attack its enemies for political reasons.
"Today, as the criminal attack in New York is remembered, I think it's also valid to denounce the fact that [US President] George W. Bush is taking advantage of his people's pain to invade and attack other countries, without caring about killing thousands of innocent men, women and children," said Liliana Garcia, a 46-year-old housewife among the protesters.
Some demonstrators also held Chilean flags to mark that country's Sept. 11, 1973, coup in which General Augusto Pinochet toppled the elected president, Salvador Allende. They accused the US government of playing a key role in the overthrow of the leftist Allende.
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