The Olympic torch blazed in Buenos Aires on Friday, as Argentine runners relayed the torch past fenced off protesters.
On top of the Tibetan supporters one has come to expect at the torch relays, there were an estimated 500 Chinese-supporters at the event, decked out in red windbreakers.
Activists opposing China's human rights record had promised "entertaining surprises" and so far, have kept their promise to keep the demonstration peaceful, only throwing water balloons.
Unlike an earlier Olympic relay in France, the torch stayed ablaze continuously after Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri and Chinese officials lit the aluminum torch on an outdoor stage Friday.
Carlos Espinola, a three-time Olympic windsurfing medallist was the first to jog with the torch in Argentina's capital, accompanied by Chinese bodyguards.
Thousands of police officers stood guard on city streets to keep protesters at a distance.
"About 1,200 federal police (officers) and about the same amount of coast guards are guarding the torch," ABC's Joe Goldman told CTV's Canada AM from Buenos Aires on Friday.
Demonstrators warned officials to expect a Buenos Aires "surprise" and one group unfurled a giant "Free Tibet" banner along the torch route.
Chinese supporters denounced what they called political interference in the Olympic ceremony.
"We are here to celebrate Olympics!" Shao Long Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese immigrant told The Associated Press. "It's a great source of pride for us that the Olympics are being held in Beijing and that the torch is passing through Buenos Aires."
"They're using sports to deliver a political message, and that's not right," he said of the Tibetan supporters.
Major protests marred the torch's run through the streets of London, Paris, and San Francisco. Demonstrators forced the extinguishment of the torch on at least three occasions in Paris, and in San Francisco, carriers played hide and seek with protesters as the torch disappeared from time to time only to emerge at unannounced parts of the city.
"It's particularly unfortunate that in the early stages of the protests there was violence," Dick Pound, the former head of the Canadian Olympic Committee, told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.
Protesters have demonstrated for a variety of causes. The most prominent demonstrations have been against Chinese human rights policies, the country's rule in Tibet, and its friendly relations with the regime in Sudan, a country ravaged by ethnic strife.
The Chinese have said the protests are part of a campaign to put their country under a negative light in the wake of its economic progress. Many Chinese have also taken a nationalistic outlook about the protests, accusing demonstrators of an anti-Chinese bias.
"As a superpower, you have to expect that some of your policies, internal and external, are going to attract attention. That's the price of being a superpower," Pound said.
With files from The Associated Press
