Rise of the Argentine Empire

When Saint-Hesse woke up, Natalie had already left. They had chatted for a few words, which also made him fall into contemplation.

“Do you like me? Mr. Cohen.”

Natalie had woken up when she secretly kissed him, so he had to open his eyes.

“I guess I still like you a little. If you don’t want to marry, then don’t. You can keep following me until you want to leave.”

Saint-Hesse said softly.

“That’s enough for me, thank you, Mr. Cohen.”

“Life still has to move forward.”

Saint-Hesse looked into her eyes again, gazing at her with his calm, probing gaze. This was a lonely woman, and if this was a doomed marriage, then not marrying was indeed a choice.

“Mr. Cohen, I won’t cause you any trouble. You are destined to become a great hero, and I am willing to help you.”

Natalie looked at him bravely and said firmly. Without saying anything more, Saint-Hesse pulled her into a quiet embrace for a while, and finally watched her leave.

Saint-Hesse had seen too many tragedies in the slums: women dying in difficult childbirth, poor sanitation, no abortions allowed, and then dying from infections.

There were also various violent crimes.

And there were those who lost their source of income after marriage, leading to infant mortality or malnutrition.

In fact, living in the slums in this era was not easy in itself, not to mention that poverty-stricken couples face a hundred sorrows. It could be seen that Natalie had high aspirations.

“Today I’m going to the Radical Civic Union. I wonder what this Argentine political party is like.”

Saint-Hesse carefully shaved his beard, then took a shower, changed into formal clothes, put on a tie, and wore a watch.

The Radical Civic Union, also known as the Radical Party, is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891, it is the oldest political party in Argentina and currently the largest opposition party and opposition party in Argentina.

Today is Friday, there are no important classes, so of course, I had to reluctantly skip class.

Saint-Hesse drove to the Radical Party headquarters, a somewhat old building.

It is located on the west side of Plaza de Mayo, just over a kilometer away from the Casa Rosada presidential palace. The environment is relatively quiet, with several camphor trees planted.

Saint-Hesse inquired with the clerk at the front desk on the first floor. Under the guidance of a lady, he passed through the corridor of the building and finally arrived at an office on the second floor.

“Mr. Saint-Hesse, this is the office of Mr. Luis Peña, the representative of our Radical Party committee. Mr. Peña is also our office director and a city councilor. He is working here today.”

“Okay, thank you, beautiful lady.”

“You’re welcome.”

Saint-Hesse knocked lightly on the door. After receiving permission, he finally met the committee representative of the Radical Party, named Luis Peña.

This was a middle-aged man around thirty-five years old, responsible for receiving him. This was also an interview.

He was a bit dark-skinned, wearing black-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, and a cigar in his mouth.

He was reading a newspaper, and his appearance was unforgettable. His hair was a bit sparse. He was also a senator in the city of Buenos Aires, so he was considered a big shot.

This was because Saint-Hesse had a lot of weight. His recommender was not simple. Professor Pukins was his introducer to join the Radical Party.

And Saint-Hesse will directly serve as the Minister of Propaganda of the Radical Party in Buenos Aires. If he was just an ordinary party member, he would only need to register his name in the administration.

“Hello, respected Mr. Peña, I am Saint-Hesse Cohen, you can just call me Cohen.”

“Hello, Cohen, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The two shook hands briefly and sat down separately.

“Cohen, do you know anything about our Radical Party?”

He picked up the newspaper again and continued reading, asking very directly.

“To be honest, I don’t know much. I only know that this is a great political party, one of the oldest political parties in Argentina, and currently the second largest party in Argentina. It has served as the ruling party many times.”

Saint-Hesse organized his language and answered seriously.

“Not bad, at least much better than other party members. Let me briefly introduce you, don’t be nervous, let’s just chat casually. By the way, do you smoke? Or cigars? If you mind, I’ll put it out.”

Luis put down the newspaper and became much more serious.

“A little, Mr. Peña, I have been smoking for a few years.”

“Well, have one too, I usually like to smoke cigars, but good cigars are too expensive.”

Saint-Hesse also lit one, puffing out smoke, his expression slightly relaxed.

“Our party’s friendly parties mainly include three: the Commitment to Change Party, the Development and Reconstruction Party, and the Free Citizens Front. Currently, we have 1.17 million party members, the second largest in the country.

Our National Supreme Congress Meeting is held once a year. The committee is composed of 102 representatives from 24 constituencies.”

So powerful, far more powerful than he imagined. To have more than one million party members, although the organization seems a bit loose, is much better than the Justicialist Party.

“Our party was the ruling party from 1916 to 1930, but now it is being suppressed very severely by that villain Perón. Even last month, our propaganda department was shut down. I heard that you have a lot of propaganda experience and have been in charge of the recently very popular New Argentina Newspaper, is that right?”

Luis first said with some pride, then with some anger, and finally asked.

“Yes, I have served as the president and editor-in-chief of the New Argentina Newspaper, and I am very good at news and editing.”

Although it was only a few days, it did bring the New Argentina Newspaper back to life, Saint-Hesse added in his heart. This was an important experience that could directly get him the position of Minister of Propaganda.

“Well, not bad. The Political Action Committee of our Radical Party is the highest leading body composed of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the National Committee and several committee members. Currently, the Chairman of the Parliament is Mr. Arturo Frondizi.

This year he was nominated as our party’s vice-presidential candidate next year, but unfortunately, he lost to Perón again. Mr. Arrend is the vice-chairman, and most of the others are not very capable.

“Mr. Arturo is very powerful. He was elected as a federal congressman twice and became the leader of the uncompromising innovation movement within the party in 1945.”

Luis said with a cigar in his mouth.

The vice president is a position in presidential countries. In Argentina, the vice president is called the "alternate head of state". When the president dies, is removed from office for committing a crime, or is unable to perform his duties during his term, the vice president takes over. The vice president basically has no powers, but may exercise certain powers authorized by the president.

Arturo being nominated as a vice-presidential candidate was indeed very impressive, and it could be seen that Luis had great respect for this chairman named Arturo and was likely his loyal supporter.

“There are also several factions within our party. The main factions are the Innovation and Change Movement faction, the National Route faction, the Cordoba Route faction, and the Affirmation of Irigoyen Doctrine Movement faction. I myself belong to the Innovation and Change Movement faction.”

As expected, the great men never deceived me. There are strange things within the party, and wherever there are people, there are factions. There are four factions here. If it were a party with 100 million people like Modi Lao Xian in later generations, wouldn't there be thousands of factions? Just thinking about it is terrible, Saint-Hesse thought with amusement, and then touched his chin.

“I won’t go into details about this. I’ll give you some information to look at later. The dividing lines are not obvious.”

“Our lower-level organization is the Radical Party Youth League, established in 1938, which is also a national youth organization under our leadership.

“Our only opponent is the Peronist Youth League.”

So there were these kinds of secondary organizations. Saint Hyesse listened with great interest. Sure enough, they were natural rivals to the Justicialist Party. It was quite a feat for Perón to create a Justicialist Party from scratch in just a few years.

“We have 102 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 28 seats in the Senate. Our strength is still very considerable. However, because of Perón, it is now very difficult for us to carry out our work, especially in the Propaganda Department, which is practically paralyzed.”

As Saint Hyesse listened, he became somewhat surprised. He had always thought that as an opposition party, the Radical Civic Union would not have many seats in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and would be thoroughly suppressed. But clearly, that was not the case.

It was already similar to the two-party system in the United States, like the Republican and Democratic parties. If you asked why he had this understanding, it was ultimately because his intelligence work was inadequate.

Argentina's highest national authority is the Congress, composed of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, which possesses federal legislative power.

The Argentine Senate has 72 senators, with each of the 24 provinces and administrative districts having 3 seats. The Chamber of Deputies has 257 deputies, allocated to each province and district in proportion to their population.

In this light, the Radical Civic Union's power was indeed very significant. Saint Hyesse suddenly felt somewhat fortunate to have joined the Free Citizens' Front. He estimated that even becoming the party leader there would be similar to being a committee representative here—better to be the tail of a phoenix than the head of a chicken.

Luis then went on to talk about many of the Radical Civic Union's “glorious histories.” At the very least, they sounded very impressive. And it had to be said, it was indeed a very powerful political party, no wonder it could remain strong for decades.

Luis exhaled a smoke ring before slowly saying,

“The Propaganda Department was originally an important department for us, but after several upheavals in recent years, it is now almost the smallest department. If you take over, do you have any ideas?”

Saint Hyesse pretended to think seriously for a moment. In reality, he didn't quite understand whether this was a party struggle or a struggle for national power. The balance of power was not fair.

“Without openly opposing, absorb fresh blood, replenish the staff of the Propaganda Department, and then start internal and external publications to play a propaganda role.”

“Well, you can try, but we have very little funding for the Propaganda Department now. Most of it comes from social donations.

Sometimes we even have to print things ourselves. It's a very tiring job.”

“I understand these things very well. I once served as a warrant officer and I'm very good at enduring hardship.”

“Okay, I will report your information today. Tomorrow we will be colleagues. Happy cooperation. I will take you to the Propaganda Department later.”

“Happy cooperation, okay.”

The Radical Civic Union is a center-left social-liberal political party in Argentina. Along with the Peronist Justicialist Party, it is one of the two major political parties in Argentina. Its support base is mainly the middle class.

The Radical Civic Union advocates for democracy and social reform internally, with a diverse range of ideologies; externally, it advocates for developing friendly relations with various countries and opposes foreign interference.

Saint Hyesse officially became a junior minister, with three editors under his command. Saint Hyesse was not impatient, but slowly integrated resources and introduced several Falcon Bureau members with clean backgrounds into the Radical Civic Union, assigning them to his department.

Gradually, the Propaganda Department also began to liven up. For more than half a month, Saint Hyesse did not make any major moves, simply optimizing the party's publications, making some deletions and improvements, and restoring their vitality.

Moreover, he changed the original Propaganda Department's radical critical behavior, instead adopting a low-key development approach. At the same time, he communicated with Luis, the office director, who was his superior. Saint Hyesse generally took action with his support.

So Saint Hyesse slowly gained a foothold in the Radical Civic Union, and time slowly passed as he did some simple propaganda work.

The Propaganda Department also slowly recovered, and he also organized some activities to expand its influence.

Bud Rogers placed a newspaper on Saint Hyesse's desk.

“Minister, the Presidential Palace has declared the Socialist Party Congress an illegal organization and has passed a law banning the Socialist Party.”

Saint Hyesse thought for a moment and said:

“My God! This law is crazy. Perón's Presidential Palace is really becoming more and more arrogant. It has already begun to ignore the law. This is going to break the rules.”

“Yes, should we in the Propaganda Department express our support? The Railway Workers' Union is preparing to organize a nationwide strike.”

“Minister, there is another piece of news that I think I should tell you.”

“What news?”

“I just received a report from a party member saying that the police have arrested the leader of the Socialist Party, Rico, and imprisoned him.”

Rico Edriel was the leader of the Socialist Party and had given many large-scale speeches opposing Perón's rule, which Perón found very irritating.

He had been in the limelight recently, but he didn't expect to be dealt with by the police force. It was estimated that he would be in jail for at least three or four years.

“Not for the time being. We don't need to be in the limelight. Perón's police force is not to be trifled with. I have some inside information that they already have some heavy weapons. This is very scary.”

The inside information was what Rheinmetall had notified him of regarding the bidding conference. Indeed, the police force was becoming increasingly armed, and they were using the Socialist Party as a scapegoat.

“President Perón has also arrested many people from the Socialist Party. I heard that he has also executed quite a few. What is he planning to do? Does he think Argentina is the Soviet Union?”

“Haha, Perón thinks too highly of himself. He's just an opportunist. Our Propaganda Department doesn't need to take the lead. Someone will naturally teach him a lesson. We just need to do a good job with our publications. The Propaganda Department can't withstand any more trouble for the time being. If a few more of us get locked up, our Propaganda Department can be directly abolished.”

Saint Hyesse had already pulled out three members of the Falcon Bureau, and the bigwigs of the Radical Civic Union had also pulled out the Propaganda Department. He intentionally befriended some colleagues in the Radical Civic Union, but he remained restrained and did not do anything out of line, which made many people quite satisfied.

Throughout December, the storm intensified, but in the end, it fizzled out. Even the military opposed this matter, so the new law had to be repealed. However, the Socialist Party no longer had its original prominence. From being Argentina's fourth-largest party, it directly became an unknown small party, and its voice was no longer heard.

During this period, many newspapers were shut down by Perón, and even Saint Hyesse's New Argentina Newspaper was investigated several times, but the impact was not significant because Saint Hyesse's New Argentina Newspaper was more like an entertainment newspaper.

Even "Clarín", "La Nación", and "La Prensa" had been urgently frozen, which allowed the New Argentina Newspaper to develop even faster, directly becoming Argentina's fourth-largest newspaper and beginning to spread its network nationwide. The New Argentina Newspaper even showed unconditional support for Perón's actions, which earned the New Argentina Newspaper some attention and favor from the Presidential Palace.

As for the Propaganda Department, it also landed safely and was not affected, which earned Saint Hyesse an award from the office in the Radical Civic Union. Moreover, he helped the Propaganda Department change many things.

The staff also slowly increased to more than twenty people, which surprised Luis.

A quarter of them were people from the Falcon Bureau that Saint Hyesse had brought in from outside, and the Radical Civic Union's relatively relaxed policies allowed him to interfere.

They acted as double agents, secretly collecting some intelligence on the Radical Civic Union, very discreetly.

……

At the end of December, Saint Hyesse had Horst lead a team secretly to West Germany to hire light and heavy weapons designers, arranging for personnel from the Thunder Cross and the Falcon Bureau to protect them.

Currently, Germany does not allow the production of weapons, and most weapons experts are estimated to have run away, but there must still be some talents who are unemployed or have changed careers. Even one would be good.

Salary is not a problem. The domestic level of weapons design is still too low. The next step is to develop assault rifles, which are the real hard stuff.

Saint Hyesse had always wanted to send people to West Germany to find weapons designers, but he did not have the talent or connections in this area, and there were forces from Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union there, so cooperation could easily be a scam. Now was the perfect time.

With the personnel and equipment of the Frerichs factory, there was also a certain foundation.