Some 40 people were injured in clashes during a ceremony Tuesday transferring the remains of legendary three-time president Juan Peron to a mausoleum built at his country estate.
The remains of Peron, the founder and leading figure of President Nestor Kirchner's powerful political party, were escorted by an honour guard on horseback amid an ocean of well-wishers that waved Argentine flags and sang the party's anthem.
The controversial three-time president, who died in 1974 but still looms large over Argentine politics, was interred in a mausoleum built at his country home in San Vicente, about 52 kilometres (84 miles) south of here.
However clashes between rival Peronist party factions became so violent that Kirchner cancelled his plan to take part in the ceremony.
The clashes were reminiscent of Peron's return from exile in November 1973, when up to 400 people died in fighting between party factions as his airplane landed. Peron took office and died the following year.
None of the injuries were serious, hospital sources said.
"Peron, Peron, how great you are!" chanted thousands of loyal Peronists as they sang the party hymn.
"Peron is immortal, Peron lives and will live forever just like (his wife) Evita, the soul of the people," an iron worker told AFP when the casket made a stop at the headquarters of the General Labour Confederation, a powerful Peronist labour union. Peron's ideology was considered a "third way" of its day, between capitalism and communism, neither clearly left- nor right-wing and at times decidedly populist and nationalist.
Peronism continues to dominate Argentine politics today, although it is not always easy to define.
Peron, who was president from 1946-55 and 1973-74, still kindles passion here, and no fewer than 62 Peronist organisations had pledged to participate in the observances.
The remains of Argentina's most famous 20th century leader were exhumed Friday from the La Chacarita cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Authorities took the opportunity to perform a DNA test on the remains, sought by a 72-year-old woman desperate to prove she is his daughter.
The woman, Martha Holgado, believes she was born to Peron and Cecilia Demarchi -- with whom Peron allegedly had an affair while wed to his first wife -- and has been trying to prove it for more than a decade.
None of Peron's three wives -- Aurelia Tizon, Maria "Evita" Duarte and Maria Estela Martinez -- ever bore him children.