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| “ | There had to be something firing these guys other than good old-fashioned socialist zeal. What were they looking for? | „ |
| ~ Max Payne on the AUP. |
The United Souls of the People (Spanish: Almas Unidas del Pueblo), also known as the AUP, are minor antagonists in the 2012 video game Max Payne 3. They are a right-wing paramilitary group from Colombia encountered by Max Payne during one of his earliest jobs for the Branco family in the Panama Canal.
Biography[]
Background[]
The AUP was founded sometime in 2001 in Colombia. Initially formed as a paramilitary counterinsurgency group, over time, the group would balloon to over 2000 members, becoming a powerful death squad for hire with ties to both the Colombian military and various wealthy elites, such as mining/petroleum companies, cattle ranchers, and landowners. Operating in the Panama-Colombia area, the group's activities ranged from fighting left-wing guerillas, to naval hijackings, extortion, drug trafficking, assassinations, forced development, and the mass murder of over 400 civilians in 2010.
Massacre in Panama[]
At some point, in late 2011, the AUP had come into contact with the Brazillian Unidade de Forças Especiais, who had possibly tipped them off about money being smuggled on a yacht, during a party being hosted by socialites Daphe Bernstein and Marcelo Branco, the younger brother of Brazillian politician Victor Branco. The AUP attacked the yacht, and kidnapped most of the crew members, all the while the group began searching the walls of the yacht for the smuggled money. Unbeknownst to the group, Marcelo and Raul Passos, one of the Branco family's bodyguards, had already taken the money onto a truck to smuggle to a friendly bank under Victor's orders.
Meanwhile, Max Payne, another bodyguard working for the Brancos, had woken up from a hangover during the attack, and began fighting his way through the yacht, all the while witnessing the AUP kill the remaining crew members and searching for the money, which he was unaware of at that time. Eventually, he met up with Passos and Marcelo at the truck. While unaware of why they were at the truck at the time, Max convinced Passos to go find and rescue Daphne and the remaining crew members. Fighting through the remaining AUP members throught the Canal and a nearby museum, the two eventually found the corpses of Daphne and the crew members, having been killed during the shoot-out. The two would later re-unite with Marcelo down in Brazil.
Aftermath[]
Two months later, during one of Max's attempts to rescue Fabiana Branco, he stumbled across a news broadcast, which stated, among other things, that the AUP had continued their streak of violence, and increased their hijacking activities in Panama despite the government's attempts to stop them. A few days later, during Max's rampage on the UFE headquarters, he came across a file containing information about the AUP, possibly implying that Victor and the UFE tipped the group off specifically to distract Max while Passos and Marcelo smuggled the money away from the yacht.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The AUP is possibly based on the United Self-Defenders of Colombia (or Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia in Spanish), a real life Colombian paramilitary group that operated from 1997 to 2008. Their activities are fairly similar, as are the groups' insignias, initials (AUC and AUP), and their shared identification symbol of black armbands.
- Max initially mistakes the group for a left-wing guerilla group, contrary to their right-wing origins. This is possibly because the AUP's methods in the yacht attack - attacking a private and yacht and abducting the wealthy crewmembers - would, at first glance, resemble a left-wing guerilla group more than a right-wing one.
External Links[]
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 Villains
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Max Payne Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Max Payne 3 Max Payne (film) See Also | ||