The President
The President remains unnamed throughout the novel and so becomes far more of an expansive symbolic figure rather than presiding over the action as merely a fictional recreation of a singular historical figure. Though based on Guatemalan dictator Estrada Cabrera, the novel’s tyrannical leader is situated as any of the dozens of Central and South American dictators that have ruled despotically over citizens.
Angel Face
Although named Miguel, the protagonist of the novel is known as Angel Face. He begins as a close advisor to the President and the novel’s charting of his fall from grace is the centerpiece revealing how the President’s despotic power drives the narrative of everyone’s life over which he reigns.
General Eusebio Canales
General whom the President exiles from the country following suspicion of murder. A false report indicating the President attended his daughter’s wedding to Angel Face seals his fate.
Camila
The General’s daughter who is saved from the fate awaiting the collapse of her father’s fortune by Angel Face. She accepts this rescue with some reluctance and eventually gives birth to a son. By that point, her husband has also seen his fortune change as she Camila becomes the iconic image of the type of person who never experiences any sort of true freedom of choice under such rule.
Major Farfan
Man whose life Angel Face saves early on after Farfan falls out of the favor of the President. Once the tables have turned and Angel Face is now the one who needs saving, he expects the favor to be returned. He is disappointed.
Zany
The novel commences with an emotionally disturbed man known as the Zany murdering Colonel Parrales Sonriente. The Colonel is one of the favorites of the President and his murder is the stimulus for the President to being an aggressive crackdown on those whom he views as threats to his power.
Fedina de Rodas
The narrative arc of Fedina, wife of the arrested and tortured Genaro Rodas, serves as a powerful allegory for the dehumanizing consequences of totalitarian regimes. Her personal trajectory from private citizen to victim encapsulates the devastating impact of state brutality on the individual and the social fabric.
Fedina's documented suffering—encompassing her imprisonment, the tragic death of her child, and her eventual descent into psychological collapse and prostitution—is not merely a personal tragedy but a profound symbolic representation of the destruction of the autonomous self by the state apparatus.
Her final psychological disintegration stands as a potent metaphor for the broader social dissolution and moral decay engineered by the dictatorship. Consequently, Fedina's catastrophic fate functions as a chilling cautionary narrative regarding the ultimate price of state complicity and underscores the extreme vulnerability of the politically marginalized and powerless within authoritarian systems.
Genaro Rodas
Genaro Rodas operates as a pivotal, albeit minor, character whose existence is structurally destabilized by his association with the accused. His narrative provides a focal point for analyzing the destructive mechanisms of authoritarian control upon the ordinary citizen.
Genaro's strategic, yet ultimately futile, attempts to navigate the regime's systemic perils—evidenced by his quest for employment and his inadvertent formation of compromising affiliations—precipitate a catastrophic cascade of consequences. These include his imprisonment, subjection to torture, and the subsequent dissolution of his familial unit.
His internal, psychological journey is characterized by a gradual progression through states of fear, cognitive confusion, and ultimate resignation. Crucially, Genaro is neither presented as an archetype of heroism nor villainy; rather, he functions as the common man positioned within extraordinary sociopolitical duress. His fate is thus determined by the overwhelming power of external, systemic forces, underscoring the theme of individual powerlessness against the state apparatus.
Lucio
The character of Lucio, a member of the Secret Police, functions as a critical representation of the moral bankruptcy and inherent instability of authoritarian enforcement mechanisms. His documented complicity in severe crimes, exemplified by the murder of Pelele, underscores his role as an agent of the regime's most brutal excesses.
Lucio's adherence to the state is fundamentally transactional, not ideological. His motivation is rooted in self-interest and an opportunistic desire for power and social status, revealing the corrupted nature of loyalty within the police apparatus.
His psychological profile is defined by a volatile combination of performative bravado, underlying insecurity, and a significant capacity for calculated cruelty. This profile demonstrates the type of compromised individual drawn to and subsequently amplified by state violence.
Ultimately, Lucio's fate—his imprisonment and subsequent death—serves as a narrative illustration of the dictatorship's inherent tendency toward autoconsumption. His demise underscores the systemic instability of such regimes, proving that even those who actively and unquestioningly serve oppressive power are ultimately expendable and subject to the very mechanism of destruction they enforce.
Gold Tooth
The character of Gold Tooth, proprietor of the Sweet Enchantment brothel, represents a study in pragmatic survival and moral ambiguity within the context of a brutal regime. Her existence is defined by an acute combination of cunning, resilience, and radical moral flexibility.
As a figure operating on the periphery of both legitimate society and state power, she expertly navigates the inherent dangers of the authoritarian system. Her strategic actions are motivated by a relentless drive to exploit available opportunities and rigorously protect her own economic and personal interests.
Gold Tooth's psychological profile is not a product of choice, but is shaped by a lifetime of necessity within an environment where power and violence are omnipresent and institutionalized. She embodies a deeply compromised position, acting simultaneously as a victim of the overarching system and a perpetrator who sustains it through complicity and exploitation. Her operational methods effectively blur the conventional ethical and social boundaries that typically separate organized crime from formal governance, making her a crucial illustration of the systemic corruption wrought by dictatorship.
