Are all the Just Cause games along the same timeline?

From what I've heard, all three protagonists in the three Just Cause games are named "Rico Rodriguez" (I know that's what Just Cause 3's protagonist is named, and I believe the same is for JC2). That makes it sound like they're all the same guy, so does that mean the Just Cause games take place one after another?

One more piece of evidence I have that they are in the same timeline is that Rico is welcomed back home in JC3, so he possibly left? However, the JC3 map is different from the JC2 map.

Solution 1:

The Just Cause series do all take place during the same timeline and Rico Rodriguez is the same character throughout the whole ordeal. According to the Just Cause wiki this is the timeline of the three games.

• Just Cause 1 takes place in 2005 on the fictional island of San Espirto
• Just Cause 2 takes place in 2009 and is set on the fictional island of Panau
• Just Cause 3 takes place in 2015 and is set in Rico's home country of Medici.

Because all three games take place on different islands it explains why the locations look different every game. There are some things that don't exactly fit the timeline due to information given in the games but the games are correct on when they take place. If you are really curious about the JC timeline check out the timeline on the wiki it goes into a lot more detail about the timeline.

Source: http://justcause.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Just_Cause_universe