Venezuela Attacked in New EA Game

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, set in a ‘fully destructible Venezuela’ is scheduled for release Sunday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – A video game depicting mercenaries storming Venezuela, which has been criticized in the oil-rich South American country as a blueprint for an invasion, will be released by a U.S. company this weekend.

The release is likely to anger allies of President Hugo Chavez, a Washington foe, who has in the past threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States.


The game, “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames,” will be released on Sunday by a division of Electronic Arts Inc and is set in a “fully destructible Venezuela,” the company said in a news release.

“A power hungry tyrant uses Venezuela’s oil supply to overthrow the government and turns the country into a war zone,” the company says of the game on its Web site.

In 2006, when the game was first announced, lawmakers from Chavez’s coalition called it an example of a U.S. government-inspired propaganda campaign against Chavez that could even help lay the psychological groundwork for an actual invasion.

PC World