After officials in El Paso, Texas, made their discomfort over Call of Juarez: The Cartel last week, the Mexican state of Chihuahua is asking Federal authorities for an outright ban on the video game that hits too close to home.
The Mexican state of Chihuahua is home to the city of Ciudad Juarez, a city plagued by drug cartel influenced violence, where more than 3000 violent murders occurred over the past year, including beheadings and death-by-torture.
It’s also one of the settings for Ubisoft’s upcoming Call of Juarez: The Cartel, the third game in a trilogy of games that, until now, have been set in the past. The Cartel, however, is set in the modern day, taking players on a journey from the Los Angeles area to the conflicted city, guns blazing.
Authorities in the city of El Paso, Texas, which shares the border with Ciudad Juarez have already denounced the game. Now it’s time for Chihuahua’s state legislators to make their stand against a game depicting the sort of violence they see every day.
Ricardo Boone Salmon, a congressman for Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, said the state legislature unanimously approved a request this week asking the federal Interior Department to ban the game.
“It is true there is a serious crime situation, which we are not trying to hide,” Boone Salmon said. “But we also should not expose children to this kind of scenarios so that they are going to grow up with this kind of image and lack of values.”
The game is a work of fiction, but its close ties to real-world violence could have a profound effect on children for whom horrific violence is already commonplace, says state congress leader Enrique Serrano.
“Children wind up being easily involved in criminal acts over time, because among other things, during their childhood not enough care has been taken about what they see on television and playing video games,” Serrano said. “They believe so much blood and death is normal.”
The state’s officials are asking federal authorities to ban the game from being released in Mexico.
While I’m not a fan of games being banned, in this one instance I can completely understand why officials feel it’s a necessary measure.
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