Diego and Armando Mendez

Diego and Armando Mendez are the two most powerful drug kingpins and well known philanthropists in Vice City circa 1984, and the heads of their own crime organization, The Mendez Cartel when the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes place. The voice actor for Diego is Ruben Trujillo, while Armando is voiced by Yul Vasquez. It is unknown if they're related to T-Bone Mendez.

Roles
In GTA Vice City Stories, Diego and Armando are first mentioned in mission Brawn of the Dead by Jerry Martinez, telling Vic Vance that the shipment of coke that Victor Vance and his brother Lance had stolen from them belonged to the Mendez Brothers.

Later, Diego and Armando have Vic and Lance brought to them, where they tell them Martinez stole the shipment, and use some pictures of Martinez with the cops and a fake license to prove this to the Mendez's. Vic and Lance keep working for the Mendez brothers until they decide to take over all of the Vance's businesses by dumping them in a burning oil storage and leaving them for dead.

Vic and Lance escape the burning oil storage and seek protection from Ricardo Diaz, who eventually helps them destroy the Mendez brothers' bonds with a Domestobot. In revenge for the destruction of their bonds, Armando has Louise Cassidy-Williams, Victor's girlfriend kidnapped, in the process of rescuing Louise, Lance is heavily injured, and Louise is killed by Armando Mendez. A vengenceful Vic then confronts a flamethrower wielding Armando and guns him to death.

Diego, after hearing his brother was killed, seeks refuge in his compound in Downtown. Then Vic Vance, with the help of Ricardo Diaz and Phil Cassidy, steals a Hunter helicopter and uses it to raid the compound. He is eventually shot down, but makes it to the compound and after slaughtering many of Diego's men, confronts Diego in the compound's roof. There they are joined by Jerry Martinez and a final confrontation starts where Victor manages to kill both Martinez And Diego for good.

Behavior
Diego is the more quiet of the two and only speaks Spanish, while the more charismatic Armando is the one with greater control of the organization. Reni Wassulmaier implies that he/she had relations with Diego. They also own a Domestobot, which was destroyed by Armando when Victor took control of it and destroyed his bonds.

Character design
Armando seems to be based on Scarface's Alejandro Sosa, as he bears a striking resemblance to him both in appearance and personality, while Diego resembles Giorgio Moroder circa 1984. The brothers' names are a play on Argentinean soccer star, Diego Armando Maradona.

Murders commited by the Mendez brothers

 * Louise Cassidy-Williams - Kidnapped and killed to lure Lance and Vic to a trap.(By Armando Mendez)

Trivia

 * In Diego's artwork, he is holding a Beretta M12 sub-machine gun, which is absent from the game.
 * Interestingly in the mission "Light My Pyre" if the player is to use the flamethrower against Armando he will not take any form of damage, however this may be a simple glitch.
 * According to Armando he and his brother are utilitarians, as well as Diego being a fan of Plato's work while Armando is a fan of Aristotle's work.

Mission appearances

 * GTA Vice City Stories
 * The Mugshot Longshot (Bosses)
 * Hostile Takeover (Bosses)
 * Unfriendly Competition (Bosses)
 * High Wire (Bosses)
 * Burning Bridges (Bosses)
 * Domo Arigato Domestoboto
 * Light My Pyre (Armando killed)
 * Last Stand (Diego killed)