Chavez Declares War on Gaming

In a bizarre move, the National Assembly of Venezuela has approved a law outlawing “video games and toy weapons” that are considered violent by the authorities. Taking the lead from President Hugo Chavez’s recent promotion of traditional games, excluding electronic toys, the new law includes punishment of up to five years for someone dealing in toys and video games determined to be bélicos.

According to an AFP report quoting the legislation (translated from Spanish, of course), the law is intended to “prevent the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, rental and use of videos, games and war toys of a violent nature”. The same report quoted Chavez saying that electronic toys promote “egoism, individualism and violence”.

The new law paints a disturbing picture of cultural control that will likely include the physical destruction of many games and toys thought to be too violent. Remember the last time you saw piles of cultural materials (e.g.: books, musical scores, plays, etc) thrown onto a raging bonfire? If your answer is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you probably get the point.

[via Boing Boing]