MEXICO/FILE: A controversial video game set to be released in the summer reflects the drug war in Ciudad Juarez, inviting gamers to take "a bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez"

Record ID: 304129

  • Title: MEXICO/FILE: A controversial video game set to be released in the summer reflects the drug war in Ciudad Juarez, inviting gamers to take "a bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez"
  • Date: 10th March 2011
  • Summary: CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOY PLAYING WITH VIOLENT VIDEO GAME
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Entertainment,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0290NAZZE96T5T352BX4Z2C
  • Story Text: A video shoot-up that turns Mexican cartel violence in Ciudad Juarez, one of the world's most violent cities, into a role-playing game is upsetting residents in Juarez ahead of its release.
    Players of French video game developer Ubisoft's "Call of Juarez: The Cartel" are invited on the company's website to "take the law into (their) own hands" on a "bloody road trip from Los Angeles to Juarez," the city south of El Paso, Texas, where more than 3,000 people were murdered last year.
    Further details were not available. But previewed graphics of the game, due for summer release, show gunmen dressed in Stetsons and flak vests roaming grim city streets toting weapons including shot guns and a Kalashnikov.
    The high-powered assault rifle is the weapon of choice of the Mexican cartels, dubbed the "cuerno de chivo" or "goat horn" for its curved ammunition clip.
    Community leaders in the troubled Mexican manufacturing city of Ciudad Juarez, which averaged eight murders a day last year including shootings, beheadings and torture killings, said the game glorifies and trivializes the violence for youngsters already drawn to crime. Many from Ciudad Juarez were angered by the game.
    "We have rejected this game and tried to ban it from going on sale. We found out a French company is behind the video game and will launch it soon. It basically reviles our city. We are sure Ciudad Juarez represents more than just violence. If this game goes on sale, we will begin legal proceedings and will even go to international courts to sue," said Ciudad Juarez city council member, Hector Arceluz.
    Ubisoft said it is an entertainment company and the video game is trying to give gamers a "unique" experience.
    Ubisoft has also said that although Call of Juarez "touches on subjects relevant to current events in Juarez", it is fictional and meant to "make the gaming experience feel more like being immersed in an action-movie."
    However Ricardo Bone, a Chihuahua state lawmaker, said the game could only hurt Ciudad Juarez's image among Mexican children.
    "That's the worry. That is why we urged the Ministry of Economy and the Interior Ministry to ban its distribution in Mexico. We don't want Mexican children and youngsters to have a negative image of Juarez. It has to be protected. We have to think of different ways we can ban it and we need to do extraordinary things also in order to rescue Juarez's image and security," he said.
    Over 36,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war since the government sent troops and federal police into the streets to counter the violence in 2006.
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