Olympic torch cruises smoothly through Buenos Aires

By Karina Grazina

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The Olympic torch, a magnet for anti-China protests, cruised smoothly under heavy guard through Buenos Aires on Friday with nothing more serious than a couple of tossed water balloons threatening the flame.

The uninterrupted relay along Buenos Aires' streets and docks contrasted with the chaos over the last week in San Francisco, London and Paris where protesters tried to snuff out the flame and organizers extinguished or hid the torch to keep it safe.

The torch, touring the world ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, has drawn protests over China's policies, in particular its crackdown last month on unrest in Tibet.

In Buenos Aires, the biggest crowds gathered to watch the torch pass the city's obelisk monument. Enthusiastic on-lookers taking pictures with their cellphone cameras outnumbered activists protesting China's rule of Tibet.

"We're really happy to have pulled it off," a relieved Francisco Irrarrazabal, the city's deputy sports secretary, told Reuters as the torch relay wrapped up.

Police kept small groups of pro- and anti-China protesters apart where they gathered in front of Argentina's pink presidential palace and at other points along the 8.5-mile (13.8-km) route.

After the first stretch through the streets of a riverside neighborhood, torch bearers carried the flame onto a shell and rowed it down the Puerto Madero docks, which are lined with expensive restaurants and bars.

Back on land, a ring of Chinese guards dressed in blue ran in formation around each torch bearer. Police on all-terrain vehicles ringed the guards and were surrounded by a motorcycle squadron.