Character Analysis
Satipo (and his short-lived partner Barranca, who gets exactly one line before scampering off to be murdered by cranky natives) joins Indy on his first quest to claim the golden idol from its display area/death trap in South America. He's sneaky and duplicitous, happy to let Indy take the lion's share of the risk and then turn on him when there's a gaping pit to oblivion between the two of them. A pity he couldn't remember the spear trap.
His death serves as a bit of foreshadowing, and also signals that there's actually some karma in Indy's world. In short, if you don't play nice with your partners you might end up skewered alive in some manky hellhole or burned to ash by a cranky god. Belloq's smarter than Satipo, so he lasts longer, but at the end of the day, they're both too focused on what they're doing to see certain doom rushing up to meet them.