Raul Menendez

"Come my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world."

- Raul Menendez quoting the poem.

Raul Menendez was a Nicaraguan political activist and the main antagonist of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. He is an old nemesis of Alex Mason and Frank Woods. He takes over hundreds of the U.S.'s own automated drones and uses them to attack its major cities, as well as cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in an attempt to ignite a worldwide uprising. He has a large scar, and burn mark on his right eye. He is also seen visiting Frank Woods in The Vault to give him a medallion.

Raul is apparently extremely charismatic and influential; according to trailers, he is called "The Messiah of the 99%" and has a subscriber count on his Cordis Die YouTube channel in the millions and views in the hundreds of millions. According to Briggs, "People in America... idolize him", despite being the one responsible for the blood spilled on U.S. Soil.

Early life
Raul Menendez was born in Nicaragua on September 5, 1962. According to J-SOC Operative Salazar, Menendez spent the first part of his childhood during his country's tumultuous years in the Nicaraguan Revolution. Seeing first hand the horrors the American-backed Contras conducted on his fellow countrymen would sow the seeds for his hatred of the west. After the 1972 earthquake of Nicaragua, Menendez's family lost most of all they had, including their home. A year after the quake, his sister Josefina was horribly disfigured and crippled from a warehouse fire the two were seeking shelter in. The warehouse was burned down by its American owner for $11,000 in insurance money; this tragedy would further embitter Menendez towards America and its capitalist culture.

The Menendez Cartel
When Menendez entered into his teenage years both him and his father, Jose Luiz Menendez, started over by selling drugs for easy money. As time passed they became rich and powerful. Their height of power was so great that the Menendez Cartel had an almost god like status in the criminal underworld. This was of great concern to the United States to the extent that the CIA assassinated Menendez's father in a U.S. sanctioned assassination.

Fueled by his anger for the U.S., in 1986 Menendez began to run guns into Afghanistan for his own private army. On July 6, 1986, Menendez was in Angola supplying the Cuban backed Communist insurgengy group the MPLA with arms. It was also the same time in which Alex Mason and Jason Hudson were in Angola to rescue one of Menendez’s victims the recently captured Frank Woods. Alex Mason ran into Menendez after breaking into his hut, while the gun runner was relaying propaganda on his radio. As his men entered the hut, Menendez wrestled with Mason after pulling a grenade. Mason gained the upper hand and shot Menendez in the right side of his face, destroying his eye and leaving him permanently disfigured. Mason then escaped the hut as the grenade exploded. This drew the attention of the CIA who sent in Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and Jason Hudson to investigate. Unbeknownst to the trio, the leader of the Mujihadeen in which they considered their ally, Mullah Rahmaan, was one of many in which secretly worked for Menendez. It was this same time in which Menendez also dealt with Lev Kravchenko, who sold the arms dealer Soviet weapons and arms in exchange to money. Sending the arms into third world countries such as Cuba and Angola, Menendez began to fund and arm many anti-western rebellions and revolutions in the hope to bring down corrupt capitalist nations.

With the help of General Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama, the CIA in conjunction with the Panamanian Defense Forces conducted a raid on Menendez’s compound in Nicaragua. During the raid Frank Woods accidently throws a hand grenade into Menendez’s sister’s room, killing her and presumably Menendez himself. However, unknown to the US or the CIA the corrupt General Noriega made a deal with Menendez offering him sanctuary in Panama. Before the US lead invasion into Panama in 1989, Menendez, with the help of his moles within the CIA kidnaps the young David Mason and brings him to Panama just ahead of the the elder Mason’s mission to capture General Noriega. Around this same time Menendez’s men kidnap Jason Hudson and forced him to relay information to Frank Woods to kill what was believed to be Menendez. After taking the shot, the man killed* was not Menendez but instead Alex Mason. To further punish the now grief strickened Woods, Menendez kills Hudson and shoots out both of his knees crippling him for life. Still not content with his revenge, Menendez allows Woods and the young David to live and vows that in due time he will return to finalize his revenge.

Cordis Die
During the course of the next thirty years Menendez hide in the shadows working to gather the men and resources needed to begin his world revolution. To generate funds for his private army, Menendez used the wealth he made in drug trafficking and invested heavily in various weapons tech including Tacitus Corporation. On June 22, 2014, Menendez began his campaign by creating Cordis Die, a social networking group drawing in billions of followers to his cause of ending the the corrupt capitalist 1% nations, using the alias Odysseus. With his followers unaware that their leader was a Narco-Terrorist, the members of Cordis Die organized into armed insurgent groups such as the Mercs and the Militia.

Effect on the Ending
Menendez, being the catalyst for most of the events in game, obviously has a large impact on the ending. Primarily, the player has the greatest choice when choosing to execute Menendez or capture him after David Mason stabs him in the right leg and shoulder with a knife. He will taunt David to kill him by saying "Martyr me.... for Cordis Die".

Choice 1=Executing Menendez triggers the release of a video that sparks the uprising of Cordis Die in Washington D.C., and with the government considerably weakened since the destruction of most of it's drones, not to mention financial losses from the near destruction of Los Angeles and the weakened infrastructure abroad, both the police and the military get overrun by a full blown revolution with the burning of the White House, leading to the beginning of the possible end of the US government. Choice 2=Should Chloe Lynch survive, Menendez will ask David to martyr him to keep Cordis Die alive and spur them to action. Refusing to do so will take him to jail and make him watch Chloe Lynch get interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel. He will express great rage at this after Chloe insults him in the interview by bashing his head against the T.V several times. Choice 3=Should Chloe remained kidnapped, or killed in a later mission, Menendez' virus helps him break out of prison. Menendez will travel to the Vault and execute Woods with his sister's pendant. Menendez will then travel to Josefina's grave and commit suicide by pouring gasoline on himself and lighting himself on fire.

Trivia

 * Menendez appears alongside Frank Woods in the music video for the song Carry On by Avenged Sevenfold.
 * Raul Menendez is the third playable antagonist in the Call of Duty series, the first being Edward Richtofen and the second being Fidel Castro. Although, Menendez is the ONLY playable antagonist in any Call of Duty campaign. Unlike Edward Richtofen and Fidel Castro, Menendez is not playable in Zombies mode.
 * Raul Menendez is the first main antagonist in the Call of Duty series that can be chosen to be killed or to be spared.
 * He has a habit of killing people by first shooting at his victim's knees and then slitting the throat with his sister's pendant. He does this first to an unknown man in the opening cutscene of "Old Wounds", then to Hudson in "Suffer with Me" and then Woods when he disabled his knees in "Suffer with Me" then finally slitting his throat in one of the game's endings. This habit is even followed by DeFalco who also does it in the opening cutscene to "Fallen Angel".