Venezuelan lawmakers wary of Mercenaries 2, suspect US government agenda
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 26th 2006 at 4:55PM }
According to a recent Associated Press report, Venezuelan lawmakers are concerned that the US government has influenced the development of Pandemic's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which is set in the South American country and features missions based on real-world events. Lawmakers fear that the game supports an agenda that seeks to invade Venezuela and overthrow President Hugo Chávez."[Mercenaries 2] sends a message to Americans: You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be taken," says lawmaker Gabriela Ramirez, "It's a justification for an imperialist aggression."
Pandemic, creators of Full Spectrum Warrior, which is based on a simulation commissioned by the US Army, defended its decision to set the game in Venezuela, stating, "Although a conflict doesn't necessarily have to be happening, it's realistic enough to believe that it could eventually happen."
While claims of a US government led conspiracy rank really high on the 'paranoia meter,' there's no denying that Mercenaries 2 echoes politically charged sentiments that have been around in video games for decades. Remember Rush'n Attack?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anonymous Rep @ May 26th 2006 5:07PM
Of course it's a government conspiracy. :)
All the game designers are doing is looking at where they think the next valid hot spot in the world will be. Remember that there is NOT peace between North and South Korea - merely a VERY long cease-fire. Said cease-fire being punctuated occasionally by REAL fire, of course.
Besides, if they based the game somewhere in the middle east (say, Iran), then it would really be inflammatory, since that's almost MORE likely to be the next shooting war. (Although if they wanted to pander to the middle east, then they could base it in Israel.)
And yes, I remember Rush'n attack - but I was being paid at the time to prepare for the real thing. Remember Team Yankee and the fears about the Fulda Gap?
Gamer Jay @ May 26th 2006 5:09PM
This is not the first time that a video game has sparked some minor tensions in international relations. Most of the time, I think the foreign government in question uses bold, accusatory statements to deflect the "offending" video game.
Notice in this case that the Venezuelan lawmakers lumped the U.S. government into their statements on the Mercenaries game. With the U.S. freefalling in popularity among Latin American countries, this will likely lead to some decline in sales among those sympathetic to the Venezuelan government.
Any decline in sales is likely to be small in this case since the video game market in Venezuela is probably infinitesimal. A similar occurence happened with the Splinter Cell series and the Korean governments. It would be interesting to measure the worldwide sales of some of the most controversial games (controversy relating to governments and not violence or sex).
flyguy @ May 26th 2006 5:10PM
Anyting that comes out of Chavez's mouth should not be taken seriously, or at least with a grain of salt.
He's lucky we haven't killed him yet. If it wasn't for this war, he would've been dead before he took office.
Measure @ May 26th 2006 5:12PM
Didn't I play Mercenaries on my Xbox? Why is this filed under PS3?
Fat Sony Fanboy @ May 26th 2006 5:12PM
Hugo Chavez is a nice guy that supports the poor people around the world. He's rumored to be considering a purchase of 1 million PS3's for the Venezuelan poor.
dsub @ May 26th 2006 5:15PM
hahahahaha. excuse me.
hahahahahaha.
dsub @ May 26th 2006 5:25PM
I don't know if this is a serious statement or not, but if it is...please take a second to soak in the irony of this statement.
"Hugo Chavez is a nice guy that supports the poor people around the world. He's rumored to be considering a purchase of 1 million PS3's for the Venezuelan poor."
Momus @ May 26th 2006 5:27PM
Flyguy, that's not something you should be proud of. The US has contributed a lot of great things to the world, but the atrocities it has commited in the name of self interest against foreign countries is not one of them.
Remember Vietnam?
Remember Nicaragua?
Remember Chile?
In a few years you'll be able to tack on Iraq and Venezuela to that list. And you'll feel good about it, too.
~C
Sabre @ May 26th 2006 5:42PM
Hugo Chavez is a paranoid moron...seriously...I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow we see him shaking hands with Jack Thompson. Both of them have made outright dumb and false statements from the beginning.
Fat Sony Fanboy @ May 26th 2006 5:43PM
Hugo Chavez is a forward thinking man. He is partnering with Ken Kutaragi to produce "green" PS3s that will run on ethenol for the poor who can't afford electricity.
Just another great Sony invention.
Ectarth @ May 26th 2006 5:51PM
"Hugo Chavez is a nice guy that supports the poor people around the world. He's rumored to be considering a purchase of 1 million PS3's for the Venezuelan poor."
Seriously, Im the only one who sees the irony in every and each Fat Sony Fanboy comment?? Oh, please, stop giving him negative stars, see the light and rise his stars rank to the infinite sky!!!
(Oh, and, btw, forgive my poor english in, well, every and each comment...)
Momus @ May 26th 2006 5:54PM
Um, said allegations are coming from Venezuelan lawmakers, not Chavez. Thought I should point that out, because some people can't read.
Sabre @ May 26th 2006 6:17PM
Well considering that Chavez is about on par with the President of Iran with making outrageous and stupid claims, it wouldn't be surprising if he feels the same way.
r-deezy @ May 26th 2006 6:37PM
This just isn't working... for most of you, it would probably be a good idea avoid political commentary stick to video games.
franklin aledark @ May 26th 2006 8:00PM
i am from venezuela, this will be a great game, lawmakers of here are controlled by chavez and his paranoia about imperialism.i hope that the game will be released with no restrictions. Chavez sucks.
cowboy bob @ May 26th 2006 8:11PM
I'm with you, r-deezy- keep the focus on gaming [a fun hobby, remember?].This is not a UN general assembly.
roy179 @ May 26th 2006 8:53PM
The first one got banned in South Korea, so I see the tradition continues :D This franchise needs all the publicity it can get, I think the original was way underrated, easily a top 5 game on the xbox.
Babylonian (Nick Robinson) @ May 26th 2006 9:53PM
Of course their claims that it's an American plot are absurd, but after thinking about it, I kind of see what it is they have to complain about. Looking at the last Mercenaries thing, the whole North Korea internal struggle plot was pretty realistic. Granted, it's absolutely ludicrous to think that a generally mindless shooter like Mercenaries could possibly affect the global political landscape, but again, I see why they're upset. They're just crying a bit too hard.
Sabre @ May 26th 2006 9:58PM
That fact that they are crying is absurd. Did people in the US cry and bitch like Venezuela when Red Alert 1 & 2 came out?
mietha @ May 26th 2006 11:00PM
Does Venezuela have oil? No? Then I seriously doubt the US government gives a crap. We kind of left overthrowing third world countries for the hell of it back in the 80s.
Sabre @ May 26th 2006 11:07PM
Ummm...show's what you know mietha. Venezuela does in fact have oil and Chavez has threatened to pull the countries oil supply off the world market.
/Waits for mietha to make the stupid "war for oil" argument...
Styki @ May 26th 2006 11:07PM
you can always tell who gets their news from Fox News.
anyways mietha. are you serious? venezuela has quite a bit of oil. if you ever gas up at Citgo, your oil is coming from venezuela. venezuela is one of the top oil producers.btw, G W Bush worries me a lot more than Hugo Chavez.
meeowth @ May 26th 2006 11:07PM
I've lived in Venezuela for 18 years, and let me tell you that Chavez considers just about everything the US and some other people do as a calculated attempt to specifically end his reign as dicta... I mean president and make Venezuela a new US state. He's really overestimating Venezuela's noticability on the global scale, people almost always ask me where it is. While it's likely that there have been legitimate attempts against his life, I doubt very much that Chavez is capable of detecting them. Of course, Chavez probably hasn't taken much note of this game in particular, just some flustered politicians.
And the gaming market in Venezuela: ever seen those pictures of street vendors with rows upon rows of pirated games? It's almost a given that a console is modded here.
Sabre @ May 26th 2006 11:16PM
...and you can always tell who gets their news from CNN.
Venezuelan guy @ May 26th 2006 11:20PM
President Chavez is a stupidest guy in the continent. Sadly he is also one of the most influential (you know, oil money can buy everything). Even worse are his Lawmakers, they can't say a word or do anything if it isn't an instruction from their "commander".
Chavez is doing the same thing that Castro did (actually under his advice), always crying that the US are going to invade the country and kill him. He just doubled the money spent on his protection. I hope they do it.
I can see the resemblance with the oil tyrant from the game. I guess it hit too close to home.
... stupid Chavez. I wish he would just shut up.
clearskin @ May 26th 2006 11:49PM
A "justification for American Imperialism"?
Since when do reasonable people consider what goes on in video games to be a "justification" for anything? If this was the case, then Rockstar actually deserves those lawsuits.
I don't think the "message" of Mercenaries is one that gamers or the developers take seriously (or even consider). And too often, "American Imperialism" is cried out by those in power to order to shift the blame from their own corrupt ineptitude.
Logicus @ May 26th 2006 11:50PM
"You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be taken," ... "It's a justification for an imperialist aggression"
Someone should inform the Venezuelan goverment that the 1st person shooter market is more about propoganda than video games these days...apparently they didnt get the memo
JoseMiguel @ May 26th 2006 11:56PM
As far as the article goes The Venezuelan government might be a little off the ball here. It's not as if that game is suddenly going to convince everyone that venezuela is a war zone. If something they're the side capitalizing on the situation right now.
"He's lucky we haven't killed him yet. If it wasn't for this war, he would've been dead before he took office."
You know, I'm sure a lot of people felt the same way when some whacko killed Kennedy a while ago. Of course that doesn't mean they were right, neither are you.
@19 Are you kidding me? They don't have oil? You might want to put down that controller for a while and read the news more often because as a matter of fact, the interest in the oil is the only reason as to why US is at all interested in Venezuela. Had they been a poor country with nothing to offer and US wouldn't even bother.
Shiro @ May 27th 2006 12:02AM
A governing body is complaining? Hot damn, I'm gonna buy Mercenaries 2!
(If I knew anything about psychology, I'd suspect these claims from Chavez to be a bit... tactless.)
Sabre @ May 27th 2006 12:07AM
"the interest in the oil is the only reason as to why US is at all interested in Venezuela"
So the fact that a dictator being so close to US borders who would support Iran and other worldwide threats has nothing to do with it right?
I swear...people...
obo @ May 27th 2006 12:17AM
OIL FLAMEWAR IN THE VIDEO GAME THREAD
EVERYBODY PANIC AND GET PARTISAN
Styki @ May 27th 2006 12:24AM
Hey Sabre, just shut up and go back to watching Hannity and Colmes.
JoseMiguel @ May 27th 2006 12:26AM
"So the fact that a dictator being so close to US borders who would support Iran and other worldwide threats has nothing to do with it right?"
Yeah, a "Dictator" "democratically Elected" I swear some of you smart asses should think before commenting on something.
First of all Venezuela Doesn't have the firepower to mess with a country like US, if they do they'll bite the dust. So unless you think a bunch of latin american dumbasses with a stone age military can take on the US then they pose no threat to american shores. It's not as if they had nuclear misiles capable of getting to US soil.
That and well, You should pick a dictionary and learn what a dictator is...
RubyFulcrum @ May 27th 2006 12:33AM
Well, instead of a lot of uninformed opinion and talking point regurgitation (good to see some of you got the memo and made the Iran connection!), here are some interesting articles about Pandemic and the Institute for Creative Technologies, an Army and CIA created organizaton, and their past work together.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3131181/
http://sptimes.com/2005/02/20/Worldandnation/Did_the_Army_get_out_.shtml
North America's getting soft...and the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We're entering savage new times, and we're going to have to be pure and direct and strong, if we're going to survive them.
Concerned citizen @ May 27th 2006 2:24AM
That´s why American people have a bad name.
1) "He's lucky we haven't killed him yet. If it wasn't for this war, he would've been dead before he took office."
2) "First of all Venezuela Doesn't have the firepower to mess with a country like US, if they do they'll bite the dust. So unless you think a bunch of latin american dumbasses with a stone age military can take on the US then they pose no threat to american shores. It's not as if they had nuclear misiles capable of getting to US soil."
3) "Does Venezuela have oil? No? Then I seriously doubt the US government gives a crap. We kind of left overthrowing third world countries for the hell of it back in the 80s."
You either think like Mr 1 ,that all the world should bow to the will of the all-mighty US, or you think like Mr 2, that just because they are a third world country they must have only 1930 cannons and swords (and probably think that they are alone, there are other contries in latin america with oil, one of them became independent last month, being the latest but not least.) or like Mr 3 you just don´t know what the fuck are you talking about.
"Hey, you´re from US! let me clean your shoes because you are so above me!"
For someone so powerful you sure look a lot at other people oil don´t you?
Please people read you own words before posting them to make sure that you don´t sound like these guys.
GCK @ May 27th 2006 3:29AM
HAHA @ Russian Attack
Thomas Averin @ May 27th 2006 3:49AM
ah yes... rush'n attack...
run run run stab run run stab run run rocket-launcher run run stab
Captain Caveman @ May 27th 2006 9:57AM
Wait a momment! We are missing the glaring problem: Is Mercenaries 2 coming out for the 360? It would not be an American Imperialistic Conspiracy without good old Microsoft in the Mix!
puh_fifer @ May 27th 2006 1:11PM
The U.S. needs to spend lots of money on ethanol research so we can just use corn instead of oil. Then when we're no longer dependent on foreign oil we'll just bomb the hell out of everyone else and all this bickering will end.
flyguy @ May 27th 2006 6:25PM
We take care of other peoples problems cause no one else will. Is it wrong...lately, yes.
Chavez is a monster and it will only get worse.
To #8 and #34...We already have a bad name so lets not kid ourselves. My comments come from the feelings of being scared of this man and what he could do to his own people and even americans.
...and I don't get my news from FOX News because their production values are not that great. I like BBC World News because they are unbiased, unlike FOX and CNN.
#8 I'm not proud of what we have done(or didn't do) in those places nor am I "proud" about my comments. The US has screwed up alot since the first Bush took office, Clinton didn't do shit about it, then W...well, you know, because of our actions or lack there of, we can't take "care" of other situations like Chavez. I'm just frustrated because he and others will bite us in the ass, and other countries will laugh at us...even when we have gave out more aid and money than any other country.
calthaer @ May 27th 2006 11:19PM
I'm just going to pipe in here and add:
Remember Grenada?
to Momus' list.
Momus @ May 28th 2006 3:21PM
"We take care of other peoples problems cause no one else will. Is it wrong...lately, yes."
Taking care of other people's problems does not require outright commandeering foreign governments and backing the organisations least likely to oppose you. Oh, but wait, isn't that what the US has always done?
Is it wrong? YES. It is condescending and emasculating to a country to install a pro-American puppet government and keep it supervised with troops. These countries become satellite states and it *is* wrong. People should oppose it. Americans should oppose it.
Examples even include some counties from the first world, too. Like South Korea, Japan, and Canada, with troops along the Korean border, Marines training too close to residential areas in Okinawa, and the Harper Administration, respectively.
As for the third world: you do know the only reason there is a war in Iraq right now is because of a claim on oil and not "the pursuit of democracy," right?
"Chavez is a monster and it will only get worse.
"We already have a bad name so lets not kid ourselves. My comments come from the feelings of being scared of this man and what he could do to his own people and even americans.
"I'm not proud of what we have done(or didn't do) in those places nor am I "proud" about my comments. The US has screwed up alot since the first Bush took office, Clinton didn't do shit about it, then W...well, you know, because of our actions or lack there of, we can't take "care" of other situations like Chavez. I'm just frustrated because he and others will bite us in the ass, and other countries will laugh at us...even when we have gave out more aid and money than any other country."
Your nationalism is showing.
He hasn't done anything nearly horrible enough to deserve the label "monster" you're giving him. Assuming the inevitable pro-American bias on all the information we have, he's probably not as bad as he's been made out to be. Is he a good guy, then?
Uh, most politicians aren't.
But this perceived threat to you and your country is utter, utter bullshit. Salvador Allende was purported to be the next Communist threat in the 1970's, and he wasn't. In three years, Kissinger saw to it he was replaced by Pinochet. Pinochet was far worse than Allende could ever have been.
Want to know what Allende and Chavez both have in common? They were both democratically elected. Shows how much democracy really matters to the US government.
~M
Jesus R. @ May 28th 2006 3:26PM
They won´t have any problem releasing the game. Venezuelan goverment always talk too much and look for problems to have the media attention. It´s the same reason of the "invasion" from usa to Venezuela.
Crux @ May 28th 2006 4:49PM
Is it morally wrong to set the game in the country with the current political climate? Well probably. But then this is a small, insignificant country complaining and thus will have no influence overall on its sales. If this game had involved being an iraqi terrorist cell, with level aims of walking around u.s towns and planting bombs, then you can bet it wouldn't have a hope of release.
flyguy @ May 28th 2006 5:27PM
What's wrong with my nationalism showing, Momus?
Josuah S. @ May 28th 2006 6:01PM
43.
"Is it morally wrong to set the game in the country with the current political climate? Well probably. But then this is a small, insignificant country "
THANKS!... american a$$hole, you wouldn´t have gasoline(or a very expensive one) without this "insignificant" country. You sure are one of those people who think that Venezuela is a jungle with some natives.
Crux @ May 28th 2006 6:52PM
That would be great if A) i were American and B) if you understood what i wrote. Venezuela is not going to be forcing any games off any shelves. America could. The point is, if this game were called Terrorist, and involved blowing up U.S landmarks, would everyone be so quick to say 'its just a game, who cares'? From now on, please try to understand a post before you go ranting like a mentalist.
Sabre @ May 28th 2006 8:18PM
@ Styki:
Oh yea...I'm impressed...that was such an intelligent come back.
/end sarcasim
PadrinoJose @ May 28th 2006 10:28PM
hey...
i am from colombia... with many many bad publicity, huge sets of bad movies (all made in mexico), and many videogames since the old dopewars.
a videogame does not represent an ultimatum of an invasion, otherwise Colombia would have been invaded from the Commodore, atari, amiga times.
AnAmerican @ Jun 23rd 2006 11:45PM
"35. That´s why American people have a bad name."
Wait are you saying we have bad names because people stereo type and catagorize what americans think by the few who speak their opinions because it is their american right to do so???
I hope that is not what you are saying. I think it more likely we have a bad name more because of our goverment and not so much because of the opinions of people here.
And also, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics, that is it's hard to understand what the normal american thinks, even by looking at the elected politicians. I honestly feel that america doesn't have enough choices in politicians for the politicans to be proper representations of it's people. It also may be that being a politician may not be an attractive enough job to interest the right people for the job. The choices for the president are strongly controlled by the 2 party system.