Call of Duty: Black Ops upsets Cuban government

Yesterday saw the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, a new first-person shooter, which portrays fictional covert missions of the Cold War. Now, one of the few communist governments left over after the collapse of the Soviet Union is denouncing the game as a tool of propaganda.

As expressed in the state-run website Cubadebate, the Cuban government has taken major umbrage with the game, particularly its first level.

(SPOILER ALERT) "U.S. launches video game whose objective is to assassinate Fidel" ran a headline on the website, referring to a mission that sees players attempt to assassinate a young Fidel Castro shortly after his forces overran Havana and deposed dictator Fulgencio Batista. Instead, players kill a body double and are captured. (END SPOILER)

"The logic of this new game is doubly perverse," declares the article. "First, it glorifies the attacks illegally planned by the United States government against the Cuban leader. …On the other hand, it encourages sociopathic attitudes of American children and adolescents, the main consumers of these virtual games."

The article goes on to decry other violent video games, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and The Warriors, saying that they encourage violence in the United States. Quoting the Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, the article ends, "Violence begets violence, but also generates revenue for the violence industry, which sells it as a show and makes it an object of consumption."