Agustin Allende

Origins

Red Dead Redemption gives no birth date for Agustin Allende in its dialogue. By 1911 he is a colonel of the Mexican Army and the governor of Nuevo Paraíso, the Mexican province across the border from New Austin. He serves the national government of General Ignacio Sanchez, who never appears on screen. His seat is Escalera, a hillside town laid out in tiers. Allende's mansion stands on the top tier and the market at the bottom.

Allende gives a few details on his family in "The Demon Drink". He tells John Marston that his people have lived and worked in the province for a hundred years. His uncle cultivated land in the province, and Javier Escuella's father, a drunk, worked on it as a laborer.

Javier Escuella works for Allende as a hired gun. Allende's men describe their task as crushing a rebellion: by 1911, the rebels of Abraham Reyes are fighting the army across the province.

Red Dead Redemption (1911)

In 1911, agents of the Bureau of Investigation hold John Marston's wife and son to force him to hunt down his former companions Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella. Allende's name comes up before John even crosses the border. At the end of the first act, in "We Shall Be Together in Paradise", Irish suggests he try the provincial governor, a colonel based in Escalera whose Spanish name he cannot remember, and says he once played cards with him. In Chuparosa, in "The Gunslinger's Tragedy", Landon Ricketts tells John that Colonel Allende runs the region like a feudal king.

Act II: Nuevo Paraíso

John first approaches the government through Allende's officer, Captain Vincente de Santa. In "Civilization, at Any Price", John comes to the manor in Escalera and asks to speak to the commander. De Santa receives him instead. He calls Allende a good and strong man who carries the weight of a million problems, and dismisses what John has heard about the colonel as lies repeated like a parrot. He promises that the colonel will help John if John helps the army. The mission then has John escort a decoy train out of Chuparosa to lure the rebels into a trap.

John meets Allende in person at the start of "The Demon Drink". He finds him at his mansion in Escalera, berating De Santa in Spanish: he calls the captain a crybaby and accuses him of being ready to applaud the day his head ends up on a spike. When he notices John, he asks who he is. De Santa introduces him as the man who helped them defeat Reyes. Allende greets John as the bounty hunter, suggests he may have come to hunt him, since John's country loves to make trouble in his, and wonders aloud whether to have him dragged around town by a horse or set the dogs on him. John answers that he is only here to bring two men to justice and that the colonel's politics are not his concern. Allende then asks De Santa, in Spanish, to find him more interesting company than the woman he brought him the night before.

John asks what Allende knows of the men he hunts. Allende tells him where Escuella comes from (see Origins) and says that men like Javier's father are natural allies for Reyes. He goes on about the local population: he says his people brought them civilization and God, that the locals despise his people and turned their back on God, and that he fights to save them from themselves. He adds that they see only a tyrant in him, would kill him if they could, and need a ruler. When John says he is sorry to hear it, Allende replies that there is nothing to be sorry for: it is a fight between two forces, and force must be used to get one's way. He then asks John for a favor while he looks for the two men. John offers to help once the men are found. Allende answers that he is in no position to negotiate, and sends him to Tesoro Azul, where De Santa's men are fighting the rebels. As John leaves, Allende scolds De Santa for standing behind him.

On the ride, John remarks on the way Allende treats his own men and on his pressure to find young girls. De Santa answers that the colonel needs recreation like anyone else and has no time to court women. At Tesoro Azul, John, De Santa and Captain Espinoza kill the rebels in the village. Espinoza then comes back with a girl in tow, says he heard women crying in a house, and reminds the men that nobody touches them before Allende. When John asks whether all this was done to get women for Allende, Espinoza answers that it is only a bonus, and has him burn the houses with fire bottles. In "Empty Promises", De Santa takes John to Torquemada, an abandoned fort held by the rebels, under urgent orders from the colonel: to kill them all.

"Mexican Caesar" opens at the manor. De Santa and Quique Montemayor push two young women inside; one of them begs not to be forced. Allende greets the women in Spanish and says he loves patriots. He tells John that they will make a patriot of him yet. Asked about the two men, he says he has heard they ride with Reyes, and has De Santa explain the job: escort a train through rebel country, for 20,000 pesos and information on the whereabouts of Javier Escuella. During the conversation, a man chases a captive girl past them. John accepts. On the road, Espinoza boasts of his standing with Allende and says he suspects the assignment is a trap (see Relationships). The convoy and the train are attacked by rebels, and John defends them with a Gatling gun until they reach the army's base camp. The money never comes: in "Cowards Die Many Times", John reminds De Santa of the 20,000 pesos he was promised for that mission.

On the rebel side, Allende is described as the enemy. In "Landon Ricketts Rides Again", the army is after Luisa Fortuna, and Ricketts tells John that her looks are normally enough to interest Allende. In "The Mexican Wagon Train", Luisa reports that Allende is sending untried prisoners to their deaths, among them a writer named Castillo and a local official who refused to evict smallholders behind on their taxes. In "Must a Savior Die?", John rescues Abraham Reyes from a firing squad at El Presidio; the executioner tells Reyes, in Spanish, that he will pay for his treason and for wanting to overthrow Allende. Once freed, Reyes admits that he had taken John for the American working for Allende.

In "Cowards Die Many Times", De Santa brings John to Allende, who is fondling a woman on a bench on his patio. Allende tells the woman not to be so conventional, and says he will save her for later or kill her and her whole family, since they are probably rebels. He then welcomes John as a rare find, a gringo who is a friend of his country, and announces that the men John is hunting have been captured in Chuparosa. He tells John to ride there with De Santa and take possession of them, as his gift for John's help. John answers that he has a wife and son at home whom he misses. Allende replies that they all do, and tells De Santa to take care of him. On the way, John asks whether the colonel ever leaves his villa; De Santa answers that Allende is both military commander and governor of the province, and must be kept out of harm's way.

In Chuparosa, De Santa sends John into the church, where the prisoners are supposed to be held. Nobody is there. A soldier knocks John out, and De Santa's men prepare to execute him. Reyes and his rebels attack the town at that moment and save him, and John kills Captain Espinoza in the town hall. Bill and Javier were never in Chuparosa. Allende had ordered De Santa to have John killed. After the battle, Reyes tells his rebels that they will fight on until local tyrants like Allende are gone, and that Allende will one day know justice. In "Father Abraham", John tells Luisa that Allende betrayed him and that he saw him do things that disgust even him.

In the same mission, Luisa tells John that her father was killed the day before. According to her, the army accused him of treason, cut out his heart and fed it to the dogs; she blames Allende for it, and says he then took the honor of two young girls. She adds that Allende knows the rebels are close to victory and has sent for reinforcements, and that Reyes asked in person for John to stop them before they reach Escalera. Luisa calls Allende pure evil and swears to cut his heart out one day. John and the rebels blow up the convoy.

Reyes gives John his own view of Allende in "The Great Mexican Train Robbery". He calls him a coward who beats the people he swore to protect and enjoys it, and says that Sanchez controls everything he does (see Names). The army train that John and the rebels rob in Chuparosa carries supplies for Allende's forces, and Reyes says that Allende will pay a high price that day. In "Captain De Santa's Downfall", De Santa executes a rebel at El Sepulcro in the name of Allende's government, then dies there, shot by John or by the rebels depending on the player's choice. The rebel Victor tells John that Allende is scared and making mistakes, and that with Espinoza and De Santa dead, the army has no leaders and the rebels must move on Allende at once.

In "The Gates of El Presidio", Reyes tells John what his spies have learned: Bill and Javier paid Allende to hide them, and have been under his protection since John arrived in Mexico. On the wagon, Reyes says he often thinks of the day he will storm Allende's mansion in Escalera and sleep in his silk sheets. After the rebels take El Presidio, John catches Javier; depending on the player, he captures him or kills him. If Javier is captured, he tells John that Bill is not there, but with Allende.

"An Appointed Time" is the last mission of the second act. The army has executed rebels in Escalera and captured Reyes. John frees him after Luisa is shot dead by the soldiers and Major Raul Zubieta falls in a duel. John then frees rebel prisoners from Allende's jail, and the rebels storm the hill. John mans a Gatling gun and, on Reyes's signal, blows up the gunpowder barrels the rebels have set against the gate. He then holds the gate against soldiers coming up the slope. As the rebels chop down the door of the mansion, Allende calls out to Bill that they can still reach his stagecoach, and Bill tells him to go while he covers him. The two men flee in an armored stagecoach. John and Reyes ride after them and stop it.

Once the coach is stopped, Bill asks Allende what he is doing. Allende answers that he is buying his freedom, calls him a dumb ape and orders him out of the wagon. He then comes out himself, calls on them not to shoot and offers Bill to John in exchange for his life, promising to leave the country. He pins Bill to the ground. While Bill and John trade insults, Allende says in Spanish that he will sleep in the bed of the man he is speaking to that night, without making clear whom he addresses. The player decides what happens next. John can shoot Allende, Bill or both; Reyes shoots whichever man John spares, and both men if John fires at neither. In one outcome, Reyes kills Allende, and Bill is shot by Reyes or by John as he reaches for Allende's gun. Allende dies on the road outside Escalera in 1911. Reyes then proclaims that Allende is dead and that Mexico is his.

The rebels then take over Escalera and replace the army as the law in the town. The Blackwater Ledger reports the news in issue No. 58, on sale after the mission, under the headline "'Tyrannical' Governor Overthrown. Is Sanchez Next?". The article opens: "The bloody rebellion in Mexico claimed its first high profile victim yesterday, with the killing of a state governor." It says Allende "was killed yesterday, following a fire fight with rebels", and adds: "Unsubstantiated reports suggest American mercenaries may have been fighting on both sides during the battle." It also describes the dead governor: "Colonel Allende, who had been implicated in several massacres and other atrocities in the region, was not a popular governor and locals cheered when they heard the news of his demise." The Ledger also reports that Reyes claimed it was a great victory that would lead all the way to the Presidential Palace in Mexico City. Two issues later, the paper reports the fall of Sanchez's government and Reyes's rise to power.

The Game of the Year Edition guide of Red Dead Redemption describes him in these terms: "This gentleman is a 53-year-old, sadistic, military leader of a local Mexican province. The province is in the midst of a rebellion. Many years ago, Allende was an idealist, but he's become a vicious cynic with a love of torture and sexual abuse. Takes pleasure in all manner of vices. He is intelligent, corrupt, and brutal."

On screen, he insults Captain de Santa in Spanish in front of John. He threatens John at their first meeting (see Biography). He receives him on the terrace of his mansion in Escalera, with young women brought to him by his soldiers. He speaks of the people of the province with contempt.

In his own words

To John, at their first meeting in "The Demon Drink": "Ah, perhaps you come to hunt me, eh? Your country loves to make trouble in mine." On his family and the province, in the same scene: "My people have lived and worked here for a hundred years. We brought civilization, and these people, these fucking monkeys, despise us." When John asks to be given the two outlaws first: "You are in no position to negotiate." Welcoming John back in "Cowards Die Many Times": "You know, you are a rare find. A gringo who is also a friend of our country."

Names

John, Reyes and the newspapers call him Colonel Allende or Allende; his soldiers say el Coronel. De Santa calls him "His Excellency, El Coronel" in "Mexican Caesar". Reyes calls him "una marioneta", a puppet, and "a perrito for General Sánchez", which he explains as a little dog that licks the general's feet. In Nosalida, two rebel posters call him the lapdog and the puppet of Sanchez. Irish, who says he played Three Card Stud with him, or perhaps Four Card Monty, remembers only "Colonel something or other...some Spanish name". His first name is also spelled Agustín.

Appearance

He is a man of about fifty with slicked-back black hair, a receding hairline, a curled handlebar mustache and a tuft of beard under the lip. He wears a black army uniform with a gold-embroidered collar, gold fringed epaulettes and three medals on the chest. He and Major Raul Zubieta are the only soldiers in the game with medals on their uniforms.

His weapons are a saber and a Cattleman Revolver. He owns an armored stagecoach with a Gatling gun mounted on the back, which appears only in "An Appointed Time". The coach carries a driver, a guard riding shotgun beside him and a gunner on the Gatling, and two riders follow it. John stops it by killing the driver or the horses.

Allende appears on screen in four story missions of Red Dead Redemption, all in the second act, set in Nuevo Paraíso. He gives none of them: Captain Vincente de Santa gives the first three and Abraham Reyes the last. He is the only major character of the game who never gives John Marston a mission directly. His name comes up in many other missions of the act, on both sides of the war. At the end of the first act, he is also mentioned, though not by name.

Appearances

Missions in which he is mentioned

The lines below are given in the original English.

What others say about him

• Local government, foul bunch. Colonel Allende, he runs this place like a feudal king. He's an awful individual.

  Landon Ricketts, The Gunslinger's Tragedy (RDR1, Act II), in Chuparosa

• Marston: Even I've heard about the Colonel down here. He's not famous for his compassion. / Vincente: This is the point. Have you met Coronel Allende? Do you know him? No, like a papagayo, you just repeat lies you heard. / Marston: Maybe. / Vincente: Allende is a good man, a strong man. He carries the weight of a million problems on his shoulders. / Marston: Am I supposed to pity him?

  Civilization, at Any Price (RDR1, Act II), on the wagon ride to Chuparosa

• Marston: Pressure to find young girls? / Vincente: The Colonel needs recreation like anybody else. He does not have time to court women. He's waging a war on ignorance, and is impatient for victory. He is trying to inspire wisdom in those more stupid than himself.

  The Demon Drink (RDR1, Act II), on the ride to Tesoro Azul

• Espinoza: De Santa licks the Colonel's boots and plays with his waiter friend. That is all. I am Allende's brazo derecho. His right arm. I am one of the few men he respects. / Marston: Is that right? You and him have something special do you?

  Captain Espinoza, Mexican Caesar (RDR1, Act II), on the road to Chuparosa

• Marston: Does your brave Colonel ever leave his villa? I haven't seen him anywhere near a fight yet. / De Santa: He is the military commander, but he also governs the province. He must be protected, kept out of harm's way.

  Cowards Die Many Times (RDR1, Act II), on the wagon to Chuparosa

• Marston: Are you married? Or do you rape young girls like your Colonel? / De Santa: No, I could never touch a woman like that! It is not my way! But, for them, it is an honor to please their leader.

  Cowards Die Many Times (RDR1, Act II), during De Santa's shooting contest

• Landon: Writers and government officials. For once, I agree with Allende. Some men need to be killed. / Luisa: Mr. Ricketts!

  The Mexican Wagon Train (RDR1, Act II), after Luisa reports the executions without trial

• Marston: Allende betrayed me, and I saw him do bad things. Things that disgust even me. / Luisa: Allende es pura maldad. One day I will cut his heart out.

  Father Abraham (RDR1, Act II), by the campfire. Luisa's Spanish line means "Allende is pure evil."

• Abraham: I have to know. What did you think of Agustin Allende, John? / Marston: I saw enough to know he ain't a good man. / Abraham: It is bad enough he beats the people he swore to protect. But it is worse that he enjoys it. / Marston: Something must have made him that way. / Abraham: Cowardice made him that way, my friend. That and Sánchez, of course.

  Abraham Reyes, The Great Mexican Train Robbery (RDR1, Act II), on the ride to Chuparosa

• Abraham: Soon it will be me sleeping on those silk sheets, and the colonel lying with the cucarachas! / Marston: From what I've seen of Allende, you might want to wash those sheets. / Abraham: You might be right, my friend.

  The Gates of El Presidio (RDR1, Act II), on the wagon ride

• Allende is scared, and making mistakes. We are closer to victory than you think.

  Victor, Captain De Santa's Downfall (RDR1, Act II), on the ride to El Sepulcro

• Ya know, if Johns is elected Governor, he's gonna open the rail lines to Allende.

  Herbert Moon, the Armadillo shopkeeper

Red Dead Redemption, Act II

• Allende: Ah, perhaps I should tie you to a horse and let it drag you around town, or let the dogs fight you, huh. Then, see what you say? / Marston: I'd say the same thing. I'm here to bring two men to justice. Nothing more. Your politics or ideas of entertainment are not my concern.

  The Demon Drink (RDR1, Act II), first meeting with John in Escalera, after he suggests John may have come to hunt him

• We brought them God, and they turned their back on him. Now, I fight to help them from themselves. To save them from themselves. I see in their faces, that they would kill me if they could. They see only a tyrant. That is the way it is. These people need a ruler.

  The Demon Drink (RDR1, Act II), telling John about the people of the province

• Marston: Well, I'm sorry to hear that. / Allende: Sorry? Why be sorry? It is the way of mankind. A fight between two forces. Que sera, sera. What will be, will be. But, I know one thing, Señor Marston. Force, force must be used, if you are to have your own way.

  The Demon Drink (RDR1, Act II), right after

• Fantastic. I love patriots. Hey, Señor Marston! You here to fight the war? At least we'll make a patriot of you yet.

  Mexican Caesar (RDR1, Act II), as De Santa brings him two young women

• Marston: Thank you. If it's all the same, I'd like to collect the men. I have a wife and son at home whom I miss. / Allende: Don't we all, amigo, don't we all?

  Cowards Die Many Times (RDR1, Act II), after offering John more of his hospitality

• Allende: Come on! We can still get to my stagecoach! / Bill: Go, then! I'll cover you!

  An Appointed Time (RDR1, Act II), as the rebels break down the door of his mansion

• Bill: What the hell are you doing? / Allende: Buying my freedom, pendejo! Now shut up, you dumb ape, and get out of the wagon! Apúrate! I'm coming out! Don't shoot! Here. Take Williamson. Just let me live. I will leave the country. I promise.

  An Appointed Time (RDR1, Act II), once the stagecoach is stopped, as he hands Bill over

• Esta noche, duermo en tu cama, cabrón.

  An Appointed Time (RDR1, Act II), his last line, in Spanish, while Bill and John trade insults. Translation: "Tonight, I sleep in your bed, bastard."

Red Dead Redemption multiplayer

• El poder nunca será tuyo!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, in Spanish. Translation: "The power will never be yours!"

• Ja ja, no has ganado nada!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, in Spanish. Translation: "Ha ha, you haven't won anything!"

• Eres un cobarde!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, in Spanish. Translation: "You are a coward!"

• No eres un hombre de pueblo!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, in Spanish. Translation: "You're not a man of the people!"

• ¡Vámonos! Date prisa cabrón!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, in Spanish. Translation: "Come on! Hurry up, asshole!" He shouts a similar line in "An Appointed Time" as he flees.

• Get away from me!

  Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, one of his few lines in English

Casting

Colonel Allende appears in Red Dead Redemption, released in 2010. Gary Carlos Cervantes voices Allende. Cervantes is an American actor born on January 24, 1953, in Maywood, California, according to the TMDb database. His credits include Commando (1985), as Diaz, and in Wild Wild West (1999), as Professor Guillermo Escobar, a scientist kidnapped by the villain. No interview in which he discusses Red Dead Redemption was found, and no source consulted names a performer for Allende's motion capture.

Before release

Rockstar released artwork of the colonel before launch. He looks heavier in this pre-release artwork than in the game, his uniform has no epaulettes, and he has no tuft of beard under the lip.

Reviews

Game Informer's review of Red Dead Redemption, written by Matt Bertz and published on May 17, 2010, does not name Allende. It sums up the Mexican part of the story as John having to "get cozy with both the corrupt ruler of the border region and the upstart rebel hell-bent on taking power for himself."

Villain rankings

In "Red Dead Redemption: Every Villain Ranked From Worst To Best", published by WhatCulture on February 7, 2022, Matt Thompson ranks Allende 13th of 15 villains from both games. He writes that "Colonel Allende could have had more depth written into his character". He adds that the colonel's corruption, taste for murder and sexual assaults show in his words, "but it's all surface level", and that the game never explains how he rose to power and came to command such an army.

Academic study

In "The Mustang Diaries: A Study of Mexico in Red Dead Redemption 1", published in the Revista Panamericana de Comunicación (vol. 4, no. 2, 2022), Javier Aldape, of Texas A&M University, writes that the game "has two versions of caudillos in the personification of Colonel Agustin Allende on the Federales side and Abraham Reyes, the leader of the Mexican rebeldes." He compares the women and alcohol of Allende's house to period photographs of military men such as Victoriano Huerta with a cigar and a glass of cognac. He concludes that "Allende falls victim to his desire to rule Mexico through betrayals", in the manner of the caudillos of the time.

Multiplayer

Allende became a playable character model in the multiplayer mode of Red Dead Redemption with the Liars and Cheats Pack, detailed by Rockstar on August 27, 2010 and released on September 21, 2010. Players select him in the Damnation section of the Outfitter, with Abraham Reyes, Bill Williamson, Dutch van der Linde, Edgar Ross, Harold MacDougal and Irish. Most of his multiplayer lines are in Spanish (see Quotes). The versions of Red Dead Redemption released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17, 2023, then on PC on October 29, 2024, contain the story and Undead Nightmare but not the multiplayer mode, so the Allende model is not available in them.

Marketing

Rockstar released official artwork of Allende for Red Dead Redemption, and an alternate artwork of him also exists. He stands next to John Marston on the cover art of the Game of the Year Edition. Allende does not appear in Red Dead Redemption 2 or in Red Dead Online.

• At the end of the opening cutscene of "Mexican Caesar", Allende bends over and vomits.
• During Act II, the gates of Allende's villa stay locked until "An Appointed Time", and the player cannot enter; more soldiers then patrol the town.
• In "An Appointed Time", if the player lassoes Bill while Allende is pinning him down, Reyes shoots both men, which can sometimes make the mission impossible to complete.
• In rare cases, when John shoots Bill, Reyes does not shoot Allende at once: Allende pleads, runs off into the brush beside the road and is shot in the back by Reyes, outside of any cutscene. In other cases, Allende runs off and Reyes does not shoot him either, which leaves the player stuck until the last checkpoint is reloaded.
• Allende's body sometimes stays on the road east of Escalera after the mission, wherever the stagecoach was stopped. It cannot be searched, but if it is set on fire with fire bottles, screams come from the body.
• Allende's portrait still hangs inside his villa after his death.
• When the player returns to Escalera in 1914, the gates of Allende's mansion still lie in pieces on the ground, as they were left after "An Appointed Time".
• Shortly after "An Appointed Time", a random encounter can show army soldiers executing rebels for speaking out against Allende, although he is already dead.
• Allende does not appear in Undead Nightmare, the non-canon expansion. In the expansion, Reyes lives in Allende's former mansion in Escalera.