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Mexico: Ban Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Will give children a "lack of values".

Dark blue icons of video game controllers on a light blue background
Image credit: Eurogamer

Mexican officials want their government to ban upcoming shooter Call of Juarez: The Cartel because, they claim, it will give children a "lack of values".

The Cartel transports the series from the Wild West to present day America with "a new and modern setting". The story is billed as "immersive and mature", and ventures to Los Angeles, California and Juarez in Mexico.

Officials in border town Ciudad Juarez, in the state of Chihuahua, have called on the Mexican government to ban the game because it is in part set there.

"It is true there is a serious crime situation, which we are not trying to hide," Ricardo Boone Salmon, a congressman for Chihuahua state, told MSNBC.

"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."

Ciudad Juarez is one of the deadliest cities in the world. About 6000 people died in drug-related violence there in 2009 and 2010.

Children are apparently taught to duck and cover if firefights erupt outside of schools.

"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 videogames," state congress leader Enrique Serrano said.

"They believe so much blood and death is normal."

Apparently the concept of age ratings is lost on the Mexican officials.

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