MEXICANS GIVE 'TRAFFIC' THUMBS DOWN FOR ITS PORTRAYAL OF TIJUANA

TIJUANA -- For millions of moviegoers worldwide, "Traffic" may just be the
latest Hollywood blockbuster, one to watch closely at tonight's Academy
Awards ceremony. But the movie's tale of drugs and corruption on the
U.S.-Mexico border has hit close to home.

"The topic was good, it was something real," said Rene Valdes, a
33-year-old civil engineer, emerging from the movie one night last week in
the city's Rio Zone.

Since "Traffic's" March 16 release in Mexico, interest has been high,
drawing more than 300,000 viewers to 250 screens nationwide in its first
six days, according to its Mexican distributor. Residents of Tijuana have
special reason to watch: The movie features actor Benicio del Toro as a
state police officer from their city.

Showings were quickly selling out Wednesday at the 14-screen Cinepolis
Multicinema at the Plaza Rio Tijuana. Moviegoers streaming into the parking
lot offered a range of reactions.

"It may be negative, but it's our reality, isn't it?" said Elvira
Rodriguez, 28, an international trade student.

"Tijuana's not this way," said Julio Gonzalez, 37, a Tijuana-born
businessman. "I just wish they would show the nice side of Tijuana as well."

Inspired by a 1990 British television miniseries about heroin trafficking
in Asia and Europe, "Traffic" tells three parallel stories set in the
United States and Mexico.

One story line follows the U.S. anti-drug czar's daughter who snorts
cocaine with friends from her Cincinnati prep school. Another tells of a
wealthy La Jolla businessman who imports drugs from Mexico. The third
focuses on Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez, a state police officer increasingly
drawn into the violent and corrupt world of the illicit drug trade.

Tijuana is an apt setting for the officer's story. The city is the
headquarters of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, and residents have been
besieged in recent years by everything from brazen drug-related killings to
petty crime perpetrated by drug addicts.

Some Tijuana viewers said the movie offers an astonishingly accurate
reflection of the problems that drug trafficking creates on the border.
Others were glad to see a film that doesn't simply point the finger at
corruption in Mexico but is also willing to look at the huge demand for
drugs in the United States.

Jorge Luna, a 29-year-old lawyer, had mixed feelings. "I don't like how
they portray Tijuana's ugliest side. But I think it's positive that they
show it's not just a question of fighting drug trafficking with force. You
have to fight demand."

Tijuana's daily newspaper, Frontera, gave "Traffic" 31/2 stars, though its
opinion columns have been more critical.

Jose Santiago Healy, the newspaper's publisher, recommended the film. But
"one perceives a discriminatory tendency toward Mexico and toward
minorities," he wrote. "The corruption of Mexican authorities, including a
military general, is almost complete, whereas on the U.S. side, you don't
see a single authority directly involved."

And Frontera columnist angel Norzagaray, an actor and theater director,
lambasted the film as superficial and riddled with cliches. " 'Traffic'
remains a movie permeated with the genial paternalism of Uncle Sam and his
acute hypocrisy," he wrote.

Sensitivity runs high among some Tijuana residents who want to protect the
city's image. Last week, one group was so angered at the depiction of their
city that its members decided to take action.

The Grupo Politico Lazaro Cardenas will demand that local movie theaters
refrain from showing "Traffic." The group also plans to press the city
government to sue the filmmakers for their misuse of the city's name.

They're not likely to get very far.

Four years ago, following the Mexican television giant Televisa's plan to
set a story about illegal immigration in Tijuana, City Hall sought a that
wouldn't curb the freedom of producers and writers to say what they want
about the city.

The movie is stirring much discussion about a problem that plagues the city
and whose solution often seems beyond its grasp.

"I think the (movie's) message is very clear that the problem is the
addiction, and that the great majority of addicts and the purchasing power
is in the United States," said Hector Osuna Jaime, a federal senator from
Baja California and member of the National Action Party.

Six years ago, Tijuana's police chief was gunned down along with a
bodyguard in a hit attributed to drug dealers. Last year, a second Tijuana
police chief was shot to death. The investigation led to members of his
department, hired by a drug lord from the state of Sinaloa. Some fled,
others are awaiting the outcome of their trial.

"We're living through a period very similar to what the United States went
through during Prohibition in the 1920s," the senator said. "Institutions
are becoming severely damaged by the corruptive power of drug trafficking."

For Tijuana viewers, some of the shots seem familiar but a bit off. The
opening scene, supposedly in the desert near Tijuana, looks as though it
was filmed across the state, near the state capital, Mexicali. It was
actually set in the New Mexico desert.

Virtually all of the urban Tijuana scenes in "Traffic" were filmed in
Nogales, Sonora, just south of Arizona. Producers said logistics and
scheduling caused them to forgo Tijuana.

While the settings may be a little off, many of the movie's fictional
characters will seem very familiar to Mexican audiences.

One character, Gen. Salazar, pretends to lead a fight against Mexican
traffickers but in fact is defending the interests of one of the
organizations. His role is clearly inspired by the Mexican anti-drug czar,
Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, now serving time for protecting the Juarez
cartel.

But the real general's daughter, Teresa Gutierrez, saw no similarity to her
father when she attended a Mexico City premiere of the film earlier this
month. "The only thing that this shows," she said, "is the extreme to which
an individual can be satanized, without getting to the bottom and really
investigating what is happening."

In Tijuana, many moviegoers weren't disputing such harsh depictions of
their law enforcement officials and the fight against drug trafficking. But
some wished that someday the world will have a different, more rounded
impression of their city.

" 'Traffic' reflects a certain reality, but not everything," said
Tijuana-born Leonardo Sanchez Barajas, a 21-year-old accounting student. "I
don't experience Tijuana the way it's depicted in the movie."