Police Pledge to Stem Gang Activity at Fiesta : Festivals: Alcohol sales will be strictly monitored in effort to prevent violence.

Vowing that gang members will not be allowed to ruin L.A. Fiesta Broadway as they did last year, police said officers will have a “zero-zero tolerance for gang activity” at Sunday’s festival.

“We want to make this a family event,” Los Angeles Police Capt. David Smith said of the Cinco de Mayo celebration that attracts up to 500,000 people Downtown. “Gang members are not welcome.”

The fiesta, which begins at noon, will feature nearly 100 Latin music stars, with salsa queen Celia Cruz topping the bill. Mexican balladeer Eduardo Capetillo, pop groups Pandora and Garibaldi, soap star and singer Thalia, mariachi singer Pedro Fernandez, Rey Ruiz--the “Elvis of Salsa”--and Tex-Mex musicians La Mafia are scheduled to perform.

Entertainment, games, exhibits and food booths will be in an area bounded roughly by Hill, 1st and Spring streets and Olympic Boulevard.

“We have been able to make this an event that attracts people across generations, who come and are able to see acts they might not be able to afford to see at the Universal Amphitheatre,” said Estela Lopez, executive director of Miracle on Broadway, a merchants group working to revitalize the Downtown street.

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The festival, Lopez said, will show “the entire city that Angelenos can come together peacefully and enjoy each other’s culture.” Before last year, the first four events were practically trouble-free.

Police cited alcohol consumption as a factor contributing to problems last year. Liquor sales are not a part of the festival, but merchants inside the event’s perimeter are allowed to sell alcohol.

“Monitoring and oversight of alcohol sales will be strict,” Lopez said. “We want to make sure that businesses don’t sell to minors or to intoxicated people, and that the beverages don’t make their way out to the street.”

Agents from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will cite or close businesses s elling alcohol to minors or allowing people with open containers out on the street, she said.

Fiesta organizers have taken several steps to improve security at the celebration of Latino food, music and culture:

* Hours have been scaled back to noon to 6 p.m. Last year’s festival ran from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

* The number of entertainment stages has been reduced from nine to five.

* Collapsible panel fencing will be put up around the entire 36-block festival area, and security officers will check all visitors at 16 entrances for alcohol.

* Radio station KPWR-FM (Power 106), whose stage was the site of trouble last year, will not participate.

The station’s stage at 4th and Spring streets “attracted far too many people,” said Lopez. She said the station, which appeals to young fans of rap music, attracted a crowd “unlike others we’ve had at Fiesta Broadway. But I was there, and I remember the deejays asking the crowd to create room--to please respect the mothers and children who could be hurt.”

When the crowd pressing toward the stage grew too large to control last year, the station, police and organizers decided to cancel the show. That decision angered some in the crowd, who began throwing rocks and bottles as a crew dismantled the stage.

Police blamed gang members for starting the violence that left 18 people injured--including six police officers--and prompted authorities to fire rubber bullets into knots of troublemakers as officers cleared the streets.

KPWR General Manager Doyle Rose said the station opted not to be a part of Fiesta Broadway this year “because we decided to do our own event celebrating Cinco de Mayo. We do not like being involved where we can’t control who gets in.”

No one can be turned away simply because he might be dressed like a gang member, Capt. Smith told a recent meeting of festival merchants.

“But we will not allow gangs to be a problem that will cause the whole event to be shut down as it was last year,” he said.

After last year’s melee, fiesta organizers and city officials said they would not allow gang members to hold the celebration hostage.

Cinco de Mayo--often confused with Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16--commemorates the victory of Mexican soldiers over French troops near the town of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Organizers said all 72 of the fiesta’s underwriting sponsors, companies such as AT&T;, McDonald’s, Disneyland, Target and Sears, have returned for Sunday’s celebration.

“People need to know that Broadway is safe,” Larry Gonzalez, president of All Access Entertainment, the event’s producer, told the merchants’ meeting. “I don’t want to leave merchants with the impression that Latinos can’t behave themselves. A few people who happen to be gang members are not going to dictate how we celebrate this cultural event.”

Smith said 650 officers--150 more than last year--will be assigned to the festival, including units from the elite Metropolitan Division and CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums).

More than 300 private security officers will be on duty at the festival.

Saying he is confident that this year’s event will be safe and free of violence, Smith joked that “the worse thing that can happen is that it will rain. I can’t control that, but we’re working on it.”

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Downtown a Stage for Fiesta The sixth L.A. Fiesta Broadway will be held Downtown on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The free event features nearly 100 Latino entertainers, food, booths, games and exhibitions. Entry to the event will be at 17 temporary gates, where security officers will conduct checks. Vehicular traffic will be prohibited on designated streets, shown below, from 9 p.m. Saturday until 10 p.m. For transit information, call (213) 626- 4455.