Founded at the dawn of the Civil War, after the outbreak of the conflict the organization was reorganized according to the needs of the time, serving as liaison for the Falange sections abroad.

[9] After the Decree of Unification, in the summer of 1937 the Servicio Exterior was framed as an organism of the new party of Franco's regime, FET y de las JONS.

[16] Towards the end of the civil war the Servicio Exterior had managed to establish numerous sections abroad, mainly in South American countries.

[12] Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War, in September 1939 Ricardo Giménez-Arnau was chosen to head the Servicio Exterior,[23] replacing Sánchez Mazas.

[20] During the first years of the war, under the protection of the German victories in Europe and the influence of the fascist powers, Falange tried to take advantage of that context to strengthen its action abroad.

The regime sought to recover the former privileged relationship that Spain had in this area, as well as to reinforce its image abroad, and to strengthen its political position before the "New Order" that the Axis Powers were organizing in Europe.

[28] Thus, at the VIII Pan-American Conference, Secretary of State Cordell Hull insisted on the need to take measures to prevent the infiltration of the Axis Powers in the American continent.

[30] The possibility of Spanish intervention in the conflict also became a matter of concern for the United States, which investigated the activities of the Falange in Latin America, especially in Puerto Rico,[31] where pro-Falange and pro-Franco sentiments were high, even among the ruling classes.

[32] However, the reality of post-war Spain was that the Francoist state was not in an economic position to carry out an extensive propaganda campaign; this was compounded by the determined opposition of the liberal elites and leftist movements.

[note 2] During the rest of the war, Fernando María Castiella (1942–1943) and Antonio Riestra del Moral (1943–1945)[20] were in charge of the Servicio Exterior.

Very weakened compared to its situation at the beginning of the war, the Servicio Exterior continued to develop its actions abroad, although each time in a more difficult context, and with a greater lack of funds.

[37] In March of that year, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle went so far as to accuse the Falange of being behind a number of incidents and events that had taken place in Latin America, such as the sinarchist movement in Mexico or the United Officers Group in Argentina.

[13] During the war, the Republican authorities had carried out the evacuation of thousands of minors to foreign countries, such as France, Great Britain, Belgium or the Soviet Union.

[43] Among the main receiving countries of children evacuated by the Republic were France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Belgium, whose authorities cooperated closely with the Franco regime in the repatriation.

[45] This led the Servicio Exterior de Falange to take charge of this task, even going so far as to bet on clandestine operations and even kidnapping to obtain the repatriation of the greatest number of minors.

[51] These aid organizations also carried out other tasks, such as the granting of scholarships of different types, or even the repatriation to the peninsula of Spaniards without resources –although the activity took place in very small numbers–.

One of these publications, the magazine Arriba España, was published in Buenos Aires, Havana, La Paz, Panama, San José de Costa Rica, etc.

[34] A foreign section was also established in Japan, with Eduardo Herrera de la Rosa –former military attachment at the Spanish embassy in Tokyo– leading the organization in Japanese territory,[57] since 1938.

A local section of the party was active there as early as June 1936; during the civil war in Spain it suffered numerous internal conflicts and even some splits.

[60] In the context of the Second World War −1942– the situation on the island reached such a point that even American diplomats accused the whole Spanish community of being anti-Cuban and of giving protection to the agents of the Nazi Gestapo.