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 war between the U.S. and China. 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 war spilled on U.S. Soil.

Early Life
Raul Menendez was born in Nicaragua on the 5th September 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. After seeing first hand the horrors in which the American backed Contras conducted on his fellow countrymen this would sow the seeds for his hatred towards 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 in which 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 US sanctioned assassination.

Fueled by his anger for the US, in 1986 Menendez began to run guns into Afghanistan for his own private army. In July 6th 1986, Menendez was in Angola supplying the Cuban backed communist insurgengy group the MLPA 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. This drew the attention of the CIA who sent in Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and Jason Hudson to investigate. Unbeknown to the trio, the leader of the Mujihadeen in which they considered their ally, Rahmaan, was one of many in which secretly worked for Menendez. It was this same time in which Menendez also dealed 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 presummably 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 furthur 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 5th 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. Executing Menendez triggers the release of a video that sparks the uprising of Cordis Die. Capturing him will land him in jail, but what happens thereafter depends on the player's choices. Should Karma survive, Menendez gets to watch her get interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel, which he will express great rage at. However, should Karma remained kidnapped, or killed in a later mission, Menendez' virus helps him break out of prison. Menendez then travels to the Vault and will execute Woods with a knife. Menendez will then travel to Josefina's grave and proceeds to commit suicide by pouring gasoline on himself and lighting himself on fire. It is unknown if this causes the release of the Cordis Die Uprising Video.

Menendez, under the control of the player, will have the option to kill Admiral Briggs or simply wound him. Killing Briggs prevents the activation of the USS Obama's defenses, while wounding him allows Briggs to enable said defenses.

The player, as Woods, also has the option during the mission Suffer with Me to assassinate Mason under the guise that the player is actually assassinating Menendez. If the player doesn't land a headshot on Mason, Mason later comes back during an ending cutscene. If the player land's a headshot, Mason will die. In either scenario, Menendez still cripples Woods and executes Hudson. However, the Career Record will note that Menendez was not completely successful at manipulating Woods.

Trivia

 * Raul Menendez is the first antagonist in a Call of Duty game to be a playable character in the single-player campaign. The first half of the mission "Time and Fate" is played from his perspective, and he is also briefly controllable towards the end of "Odysseus".
 * Menendez appears alongside Frank Woods in the music video for the song Carry On by Avenged Sevenfold, who they're playing alongside with (Menendez on Guitar and Woods on Drums).
 * Raul Menendez is the second playable antagonist in the Call Of Duty series, the first being Edward Richtofen.
 * In one way or another, Menendez will die. The player can choose kill to him in Haiti or capture him. Where he will later commit suicide in Josefina's grave.