Rise of the Argentine Empire

While the Falcon Squad was causing a stir in the Golden Triangle, Saint Hesser finally had some free time today. He was snacking while reading the delivered newspapers and Guerrero's report.

"It feels inappropriate to mine under the name of the Lightning Cross. It would be best to directly establish a mining company, with the Lightning Cross acting as a security company responsible for defense," Saint Hesser thought. After reading the telegram from Guerrero, he understood the cause and effect of the matter.

Guerrero is not good at management, and the intelligence agency needs him very much. It would be best to select someone from Maria Town to form a mining company responsible for developing mineral resources.

Argentina's mineral resources are indeed quite abundant. At least the fireworks factory currently needs raw materials. The subsequent fertilizer plant cannot only produce nitrogen fertilizer; potash fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer should also be involved. After all, the Redwood Fertilizer Plant needs comprehensive fertilizer production capabilities to defeat its competitors.

Moreover, the Lightning Cross needs Guerrero to grow stronger. In Saint Hesser's mind, the importance of the Lightning Cross is very high, and Guerrero is indispensable. After the salt lake stabilizes, just leave a squad leader there. Recruit and train some local security guards.

The establishment of a mining company needs careful planning. Simply drying some brine and chemical salt raw materials is easy, but if further development is to continue, the personnel and equipment of the mining company need to be formalized, and a capable person needs to be sent to be responsible.

Lucifer Miller returned to Rosario two days ago. Saint Hesser provided him with the latest plastic bottled soda and told him to pay attention to making friends with the local family forces.

Saint Hesser is increasingly valuing Lucifer. Lucifer is indeed a talent, not only skilled in social interaction but also good at learning. It's just that his education is somewhat of a weakness. He should quickly get a better degree to better deal with those shrewd people.

Rosario is currently the second largest city in Argentina, with a good industrial system, and it is not far from Maria Town. The people recruited from Rosario last time have benefited greatly so far.

The Domingo-Matt Light Weapons Factory that Saint Hesser is thinking about is in Rosario, and the local family is currently one of the two strongest local forces in Argentina, the other being Cordoba.

Saint Hesser's Maria Mold Factory has already started, but there are basically no research and development talents. It can only produce some ordinary accessories and parts. The most marketable product now is the bottle cap for beverage glass bottles. Now there is no need to purchase bottle caps from other places.

The mold factory is now fully equipped with small punching machines, forging machines, and injection molding machines.

Rosario has many state-owned machinery factories and private equipment factories. Lucifer also shoulders another important task: to be responsible for poaching talents for the Maria Mold Factory at a high price. Saint Hesser wants all mechanical research and development talents. For this reason, Saint Hesser asked him to upgrade the Rosario business department into a branch company, and he will personally discuss the development direction when he passes through Rosario on his way to Buenos Aires.

Cross has also returned to Cordoba, responsible for the management of the Plari factory.

Cross's talent is also quite good, but unfortunately, he is too old, more than enough to maintain the status quo but lacks the potential for development. The work at the Plari factory is also very suitable for him.

Mayor Cavo went to Cordoba yesterday to attend a meeting, and most other people are also paying attention to the new round of general elections. The factory also arranged a day off.

Today is the day when the results of the new presidential election are announced. Basically, all of Argentina is on holiday, and Saint Hesser can only follow the crowd and give himself a holiday.

The election even caused some new stores in the town to close. Saint Hesser had to buy groceries and cook for himself.

Saint Hesser bought a villa in the suburbs of Maria Town some time ago. The environment is not bad. There is a swimming pool behind the villa. He finally experienced the feeling of a capitalist society's mansion.

This villa covers an area of 500 square meters and uses a brick and stone structure, not a wooden villa. It looks quite high-end.

Several palm trees are planted outside.

Now Saint Hesser lives in the new villa every day. The villa has a telephone, refrigerator, TV, and other furniture, all purchased and given as gifts. The decoration is also relatively luxurious.

The newly recruited Lightning Cross security guards around the villa, wearing black clothes and sunglasses, guard the surroundings, with bulges at their waists, giving people a strong sense of security.

He will have to go back to Cordoba to the commander's house when he goes to school in a while.

......

Today, Saint Hesser plans to give himself a holiday, rest, read international news, and pay attention to the results of today's election.

Fortunately, the vegetable market in the town is not closed. Saint Hesser purchased fresh lamb, pork, and locally produced fresh vegetables. Because Saint Hesser provided a large number of well-drilling facilities, Maria Town was not severely affected by the disaster. In addition, there was a recent light rain, so the harvest was quite abundant.

He plans to make a barbecue for himself, and there are several boxes of glass-bottled soda stockpiled at home.

After cutting the slices, several Lightning Cross security guards took off their coats and had a barbecue together, and drank some iced soda. It was really refreshing.

These days, looking at the election propaganda newspapers, such as "President Peron's Biography" and "Peron - The Forger of the New Argentina" and other boasts, the photo of Peron on the campaign poster shows him wearing a white shirt and suit, combing his hair back, looking into the distance from the side, with slogans such as Peronism and the Third Position.

He was vigorously spouting his ideas, which seemed quite comical, saying things like capitalism and communism were outdated, along with national liberation and national revival. The problem was, Argentina had been independent for over a hundred years, right? These were truly strange slogans. José took a bite of his grilled corn.

Mrs. Perón, currently suffering from cancer, attended the Plaza de Mayo, gave a speech, and supported her husband's campaign. She also interacted with the gathered voters, campaigning for Perón. There were photos of her looking somewhat gaunt, but with a smile on her face.

The Plaza de Mayo was packed with seventy to eighty thousand people. José had passed through it a few times on his way to Buenos Aires, and it was indeed quite shocking. If Argentine women had the right to vote at this time, Mrs. Perón would probably have a better chance of being elected president than Perón, who stood before her.

It must be said that Mrs. Perón was indeed a great person. José's mood was also quite complex. It was a pity that this young woman, who had experienced so much hardship, was truly burning her life to speak out and take action for the Argentine people.

If she hadn't passed away so quickly, perhaps Argentina's future would have been very different, maybe even with a female president.

Of course, the Mrs. Perón of later generations has become a part of Argentine culture. As for the real Mrs. Perón, let the future generations of Argentina judge her.

José also saw the news spread by the opposition, attacking Mrs. Perón for her extravagance and wealth, saying she was richer than the rich, had tens of thousands of hats, hundreds of pairs of shoes, and forced capitalists to donate, using any means necessary to get her way. It was unclear whether this was deliberate slander or the truth, but the Argentinians of the time believed Mrs. Perón was their savior.

At the very least, she was willing to speak for the common people. José couldn't judge these things. As for these "voluntary donations" to ensure justice, whether they damaged Argentina's investment environment, led to capital flight, and indirectly increased inflation and unemployment, it was unclear whose responsibility it was, Perón's or Mrs. Perón's.

……

While reading these newspapers, José also formed a new understanding in his mind. If kindness to the Argentine people was based on illusory welfare that damaged production and industrialization, it was better not to have it at all.

Just as the greatest kindness a general can show his soldiers is to win battles, the greatest kindness to a country's people is never unaffordable high welfare.

Perón's rise to power was absolutely related to the famous Mrs. Perón, but he also had undeniable responsibilities.

Previously, Argentine presidents could not be re-elected. Perón was elected in '46, and in '49 he presided over the amendment of the constitution to allow presidential re-election. This was forcibly passed while the opposition party refused to attend.

Of course, it must be said that Perón was indeed a master of manipulating labor unions.

However, the series of economic, political, and social reforms he implemented after taking office seemed to be dragging Argentina into an abyss.

Because his reforms had a very controversial aspect: forced nationalization, which came at a high price. In reality, many foreign monopoly organizations still held dominant positions in "joint ventures."

The UK and Argentina originally had a very good relationship. This move greatly offended the UK and the US, turning Argentina into a closed-off country. Perón attempted to develop Argentina on his own, but he didn't have the corresponding strength.

In José's view, Perón himself was quite narcissistic, regarding himself as an Argentine sage. A few years ago, he advocated renaming the party the Peronist Party, and last year he even changed the Chaco Administrative Region to the Juan Perón Presidential Administrative Region. He had also heard that he was planning to change it to Juan Perón Province, which was quite a frivolous and even childish approach.

Of course, he had made some contributions, such as the Eva Perón Foundation established by his wife. Although most of them ended without success after he stepped down, and even his policies were problematic, such as Argentina's unaffordable high welfare policy, which emptied the national treasury.

Women's suffrage was a huge step forward.

A few years ago, he was anti-British and anti-American, but recently he seemed to be in contact with the UK and the US again. This was what the people at the Argentine oil company that José cooperated with said, mentioning that they were planning to open up the oil sector.

José purchased a lot of equipment from the people at General Electric, and their relationship was okay. Some of their evaluations of Perón also revealed some clues, such as spending huge sums of money to redeem the telephone company, while the basic equipment was still purchased from General Electric at high prices.

José put down some of the newspapers in his hand, shook his head, and banished those thoughts from his mind. This was not something he could currently get involved in, so he decided to look at other news.

In addition to integrating his factories these days, José had also been paying attention to the final results of the election.

Since the beginning of the year, Argentina's economic growth rate had lagged far behind Brazil and Mexico, and was even lower than the two small countries of Paraguay and Uruguay, not to mention Chile and Colombia, which were developing rapidly.

In particular, the nationwide strike movement seriously hindered Argentina's economic development. Coupled with two years of drought, an empty national treasury, and serious corruption, all of these were stimulating the hearts of the Argentine people.

Last year, Argentina's public deficit had exceeded 20% of GDP. Huge fiscal expenditures were dragging down the entire Argentine government. The seemingly thriving surface was already beginning to decay inside.

The Argentine government was currently adopting Keynesian economic ideas, which used public fiscal expenditure as a tool. Ironically, in order to maintain huge fiscal expenditures and repay debts, they were actually trying to rely on frantically running the printing press, which led to inflation.

When the people's hearts are lost, it will also cause economic turmoil and even a serious recession. The Argentine people have lost confidence in the Argentine government and the peso. This is the Argentine version of "a small horse pulling a big cart." Small Argentina simply doesn't have the national strength to maintain huge expenditures. In short, it is overestimating its capabilities.

“Argentina National Radio, Juan Perón has been elected as the new President of Argentina.”

Hoo, history has not changed.

José finished the last sip of soda, and then took a big bite of grilled meat.