By Anne La Jeunesse

Scores of Santa Monica residents and supporters marched in protest in front of Activision, the company that produced a "Toy Story 2" video game for the Walt Disney Co., a game that pits hero Buzz Lightyear against a villainous opponent the protesters say is a degrading stereotype of Latinos.

""I call it a game of virtual genocide, that's really what it means to me," said Oscar de la Torre, a counselor and former student at Santa Monica High School, where the offending image was first discovered by a student.

You're being specific about stereotyping a certain ethnic group and behind the gun is the image of the white astronaut," de la Torre said. "That image did not show up in the movie, so what's the purpose of it being on the video game?"

Activision is located at 31st Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.

After gunning down animals, monsters and robots, the anvil-chinned hero, astronaut Buzz Lightyear, encounters, after the 11th level of the game, an ape-like man who appears to be a caricature of a Mexican bandido -- wearing a droopy mustache, a sombrero and bandoleers of bullets across his chest.

"He doesn't say anything, he's there to get shot, mainly," de la Torre said.

De la Torre said that he was "very upset" when the student showed him the game, and he and others stunned by the image mounted a campaign to convince Disney Pixar to recall the items.

"I was surprised that a company would degrade our community in that way, and that this is a product targeting children, and that this type of stereotype would be included -- it's a violent video game," de la Torre said. "I call it a virtual game of genocide

De la Torre said that through contact with Disney Pixar, the protesters were told that the inclusion of the bandido image "was a mistake," that would be corrected in future printings of the games. However, he said, they were told that Disney would not recall the games until after the holiday season.

"That's unsatisfactory," de la Torre said Thursday night. "We want an immediate recall and apology to the entire community and a meeting with management to discuss how this image was ever allowed to be on a video game."

The protesters, numbering about 150, included state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and Rabbi Neal Comess-Daniels. The group has the backing of the National Conference for Community and Justice, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Santa Monica City Councilman Kevin McKeown joined the protest after being given a clip of the video game by de la Torre.

"I thought 'How bad could it be? How stupid could Disney and Activision be?'," McKeown said. "Then I watched it. You have a stocky, swarthy man with a droopy Mexican style mustache wearing desert tan combat fatigues, ribbons of bullets across his chest and a sombrero.

"But, the kicker was -- when I turned up the stereo to listen to the music, mixed in with the (noise of video games) was a Mexican guitar, it blew me away. I pounded my fist on the floor and said 'I can't believe it!'."

McKeown has added the matter to the city council's Dec. 14 city council meeting, and will ask his council colleagues to discuss the racial stereotyping in the video game and join the protesters in their demands for an apology, recall and ask that the companies that produced the game take measures to ensure greater racial sensitivity.

McKeown said he, too was told that the game would be altered after the holidays, which he said is a small measure of relief. McKeown said that probably hundreds of thousands of the games have been distributed to dealers and will be sold as gifts this holiday season while the movie "Toy Story 2" is still a hot commodity.

"All across the country kids are going to be playing a game where the point is to shoot a Mexican and to have the game made in the Santa Monica, where we value cultural diversity as much as we do, to have it come out of a company here -- I'm embarrassed."

McKeown said that he has learned an employee of Activision allegedly alerted management about the offending image long before it was released, but no measures were taken.

Officials of Activision or Disney could not be reached Thursday night for comment.

De la Torre said that the protesters will keep the heat on -- next targeting distributors such as Toys R Us, Best Buy and Blockbuster Video, which carry the video game.