Hey, hey, what's up? It's Gustavo Ariano. And today we're letting our sibling publication, the San Diego Union Tribune, take over with their latest episode of their new podcast, Border City. And in it, longtime border reporter Sandra Dibble talks about covering Tijuana's big stories in the 1990s, like the kidnapping of a prominent Machilador executive and the presence of the Ariano Felix drug cartel.

And no, I'm not related to them.

But like most Iguanenses, Sandra actually felt pretty safe at home and Sandra didn't let the terrifying headlines that she was writing

stop her from settling into a new life and exploring her adopted home of Tijuana.

Enjoy. Sandra, take it away.

Ladies and gentlemen, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Haley Congress.

In 1996, the Republican National Convention put San Diego in the spotlight.

Some 30,000 people crowded into the city's hotels and conference halls.

Tijuana's boosters hoped to lure some of them across the border to shop and eat.

They also hoped some of the journalists assigned to cover the convention would venture into Tijuana

and send back positive stories about what they saw.

A U.S. public relations firm was hired. The streets downtown

were swept. A promotional video was prepared. Late on a Saturday afternoon, on the day before the

convention, I drove three of my Tijuana colleagues across the border for a lavish media party.

It was hosted by my newspaper's Republican owner.

My car was tiny, and there was barely enough room for all four of us.

I drove in circle through downtown San Diego, feeling anxious.

Everything seemed unfamiliar, so different from Tijuana.

Oh, say, can't from Tijuana. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early... On that Saturday evening, while my friends and I were enjoying live music and fireworks over San Diego Bay, something

was happening in Dijuana, something that would dash its grand hopes of attracting

those Republican tourists.

A Japanese businessman was kidnapped, a man with a nickname Mr. Sweet.

...