Home Gaming Which Dictator Filed a Lawsuit Over His Depiction in the Video Game “Call of Duty”?

Which Dictator Filed a Lawsuit Over His Depiction in the Video Game “Call of Duty”?

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Manuel Noriega

Call of Duty is a popular shooter game whose characters are often loosely based on political leaders and real-life heroes. While playing the game, you will probably find characters based on personalities like David Petraeus, John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. But which dictator filed a lawsuit over his depiction in the video game Call of Duty?

One such real-life personality that was portrayed in this game is Manuel Noriega. Manuel was a military leader of Panama. He filed a complaint against Activision Blizzard Inc. for basing one of the characters in Call of Duty Black Ops II based on him.

About Manuel Noriega – The Dictator of Panama

Noriega was a military officer who later joined politics and became the de facto ruler of Panama.

  • Noriega was initially a military leader. He started gaining power over the years and became de facto president of Panama in 1983 after the death of Torrijos.
  • He ruled over Panama from 1983 to 1989. During his rule, he focused more on the growth and development of the military. He took away the right of freedom of speech from people.  It is also said that he executed many opponents to maintain his power.
  • In 1989, the situation in Panama started getting out of hand. America told Noriega to resign, but he refused. As a result, US president George W. Bush gave orders to invade Panama, because it presented a threat to the US people. Noriega was arrested and taken to jail in America. He spent nearly 20 years in prison and died in 2017 during surgery.

The Call of Duty Game Character and Noriega

In the game, the character that represented Noriega is made part of the Panamanian defence forces. He is a secondary or tertiary enemy who betrays his own men. At first, he tries to help the CIA arrest Raul Menendez. He sends the forces to a cartel and tells them to capture Menendez. Later, he deceives his own men and helps Menendez to run away.

The US starts an operation named Operation Just Cause, and invades Panama to target Noriega. Two other characters named Captain Frank Woods and Alex Mason, start looking for Noriega. He gets captured, but then he escapes when he is being taken to prison. He escapes by fooling Captain Frank and putting a bag over Alex Mason’s head. Frank shoots Alex after mistaking him for Menendez. He also gets shot by Menendez.

The Lawsuit Against Activision Blizzard Inc.

Noriega filed a suit against Activision Blizzard Inc. for depicting him the way they did in the game. He said that using his image and name for a character that is being portrayed as a murderer, a kidnapper, and a betrayer had ruined his reputation. He claimed that he was not given any share of the profit of the game, and the game developers used his name without getting his approval. The game creators dismissed all these claims. They said they used their free speech rights. Court also dismissed these allegations and said that there was no proof that Call of Duty harmed Noriega’s reputation in any way, according to mdf-law.com. Can you ruin the reputation of a brutal dictator?

Which Dictator Filed a Lawsuit Over His Depiction in the Video Game “Call of Duty”?

Manuel Noriega

Last Updated: November 24, 2021

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