The Ballester–Molina is a pistol designed and built by the Argentine company Hispano Argentina Fábrica de Automóviles SA (HAFDASA).

[4] The company's history dates back to 1929, when two Spanish entrepreneurs, Arturo Ballester and Eugenio Molina, established a branch of Hispano-Suiza in Buenos Aires, "Hispano-Argentina S.A.".

Years later, HAFDASA hired two engineers, Frenchman Rorice Rigaud and Carlos Ballester–Molina, a relative of the founders.

[5] As the Ballester–Molina was designed to serve alongside the Modelo 1927 that was currently in Argentine service, it bears a striking resemblance to the Colt M1911A1.

[4] In a September 2007 article in the Argentine gun magazine Magnum, about the British-ordered Ballester–Molina pistols, gun writer and collector George E. Arbones' research and collection data seems to indicate the legend British-bought Ballester–Molinas being manufactured using steel salvaged from the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee after she was scuttled in the River Plate in Montevideo harbor, Uruguay.

A number of pistols was issued to agents of the SOE, in order to avoid the use of British weapons for undercover operations in occupied Europe and behind enemy lines.

British Contract B125 displaying HAFDASA Serial Number 9019 is preserved at the Imperial War Museum in Leeds, UK.