NEWS
The Dictator: Noriega's Revenge?
After serving twenty years on drug charges and general crimes against his populace, Manuel Noriega the fallen dictator of Panama is crawling his way back into headlines once again in 2014. Oh how the mighty have fallen, as now Noriega is taking on publisher Activision rather than oppressing innocents in his homeland. But what is his grudge with the Call of Duty publisher?
Plain and simple, he's suing for damages for unlawful use of his likeness. In 2012 Activision published and Treyarch developed and released Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 which released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. During the course of the singleplayer campaign, there comes a few moments where not only does the player encounter Manuel Noriega (both in name and likeness) but actually works alongside AND is betrayed by him as well. The story, much like real life, painted a bad picture of Noriega.
Without a doubt, Noriega is most certainly a bad guy however laws are laws. Does he stand a chance in the lawsuit? While many still say no, those same people agree that he does have a higher chance of success only due to the uncanny likeness and the fact that his name was used as well. This is quite a bit different from the recent lawsuit of Lindsay Lohan vs Rockstar over a generic blonde in the game. One thing is for certain, at this point Activision can take on the 'good guy' role temporarily for many because simply no one likes Noriega other than whatever may remain of his defunct sentiment from the 1980's.