A nameless veteran in his late 70s, the colonel is a stubborn, proud optimist. He's spent the sixty years "since the end of the last civil war" (3) waiting for his pension check to arrive. Though he and his wife live in destitution and he suffers from fever spells, the colonel insists that the day he feels sick, he will throw himself "into the garbage can" (17) on his own. When his wife suggests that they sell their clock and painting so they can eat, the colonel says it's "a humiliation" (41) for everyone to know they're "starving" (41). After finally agreeing to sell the rooster to his wealthy friend, Sabas, the colonel reneges on the deal and brings the rooster home.

During the Thousand Days' War, the colonel performed the arduous task of transporting Colonel Aureliano Buendía's gold to him. The task, though, proved futile, as Colonel Buendía signed the Treat of Neerlandia, a surrender, minutes later. This task haunts the nameless colonel's life, through the ephemeral promise of his pension and the ephemeral potential of the rooster he can't afford to feed.