Miguel

"Please amigo, don't leave me with her, she psycho chica!"

- Miguel Cortez after Catalina betrayal him

Miguel was a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as a main character and the secondary antagonist of Grand Theft Auto III (set in 2001) and as a minor character in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (set in 1998).

Miguel is co-leader of the Colombian Cartel along with Catalina, and is involved in the gang's narcotics trade.

In GTA III Miguel is voiced by Al Espinosa, who has also appeared in such programs as Law & Order, but the voice actor for his appearance in GTA Liberty City Stories is uncredited.

Background
Miguel is born in Colombia and at some point prior to 1998 moves to Liberty City, joining the Colombian Cartel, becoming a prominent member of the gang.

Events of GTA Liberty City Stories
Miguel frequently sells drugs from Portland Harbor to the Leone Family and meets Toni Cipriani in a deal in 1998 that is later ambushed by the Liberty City Police Department. Toni Cipriani seemingly kills Miguel, who manages to survive. He continues to climb the ranks of the Cartel and, following the death of Cisco, becomes one of the gang's co-leaders.

Events of GTA III
In 2001 he meets Catalina and Claude as they arrive in the city and helps them rob a bank as their getaway driver. After Catalina shoots Claude and leaves him for dead, Miguel escapes the police with Catalina. Catalina and Miguel begin to increase the gang's influence in the city by stepping up the production of the drug SPANK from a freighter in Portland Harbor and also begin to work against the Leone Family, exchanging Leone secrets for SPANK with barman Curly Bob. Their operations, however, are stopped by Claude who, on orders from Don Salvatore Leone, kills Curly Bob and then destroys the freighter containing the SPANK factory.

Claude, after moving to Staunton Island, begins to work for Donald Love, first rescuing the Old Oriental Gentleman from the Cartel. Love later sends Claude to collect a package from an incoming plane at Francis International Airport and later has him return to collect the real package, having previously sent Claude to collect decoy packages. The package, however, has already been collected by Miguel and Catalina. Claude goes to a construction site in Fort Staunton and confronts Miguel and Catalina. Miguel hands the package to Claude but is shot by Catalina, who jumps down into a skip to escape.

Death
Asuka Kasen, enraged following the death of her brother Kenji at the hands of a "Cartel assassin" (really Claude disguised as a Cartel member), begins to torture Miguel for information on the Cartel's operations. After extracting information from Miguel, Asuka then sends Claude to stop the Cartel operations, which includes killing three Cartel hit squads, destroying the Kappa Coffee House stands (which were a front to sell SPANK) and destroying a plane and collecting the SPANK packages inside. After collecting the SPANK packages, Claude returns to the construction site and finds Asuka and Miguel dead, with Miguel impaled on a construction pole, with a note addressed to Claude attached to his body.

Miguel is one of the few characters who appears and (seemingly) dies in more than one game (GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories), the others being Charlie, Michael Keane, Eugene Reaper, Mori Green, Evan Moss, and Jim Fitzgerald. However, Miguel is the only one whose death does not occur in a crossover mission.

Trivia

 * In the beta, at the introduction cutscene he would say: Catalina! Move your ass! [1.
 * Miguel might have urinated in his pants during the torture as Maria says "What is that gooey yellow stuff?" in the beginning cutscene of S.A.M.

Mission Appearances

 * GTA III
 * Introduction (Betrayal)
 * Cutting the Grass
 * Grand Theft Aero
 * Bait
 * Espresso-2-Go!
 * S.A.M. (Killed; off-screen)
 * Ransom (Deceased)


 * GTA Liberty City Stories
 * Contra-Banned ("Killed", but survived)

Navigation
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