Josep Dencàs “had sworn un odio a muerte” to Joan Selves, according to ERC-affiliated journalist Lluís Aymamí. At the beginning of 1934 it was an open secret that the former, Minister of Health and Social Assistance and leader of the Youth of the Republican Left-Catalan State (Jerec), yearned with all his might for the portfolio of Government, which the latter held in the government of Lluís Companys.
Selves, born in Sant Mateu de Bages, at the age of 35 had experienced a brilliant rise. Lawyer, journalist, defender of the rabassaires, he had proclaimed the Republic in Manresa in April 1931, joined the ranks of Esquerra from Acció Catalana and served as the city’s first Republican mayor. In two years he had been a deputy in the Corts Constituientes and in the Parliament, brief Minister of Economy and Agriculture, Minister of Government, Governor General of Catalonia and General Commissioner for Public Order, before returning to Government. A man completely trusted by Companys and a member of the ERC leadership, with a good understanding of the government of Manuel Azaña, he managed the transfer of public order to the Generalitat in 1933.
His progression did not seem to have a ceiling. His name sounded even for Minister of the Interior. In March 1934, however, the press reported that Selves was not feeling well. He soon stopped going to government councils, went to bed, and to the general surprise weeks passed without his recovery. After much resistance, on June 10, President Companys appointed Dencàs to take charge, on an interim basis, of Governació. It had been two days since the Court of Constitutional Guarantees had issued the opinion annulling the Law on Farming Contracts approved by Parliament: the spark that would lead to the Fets d’Octubre.
Selves lived with his wife and two daughters in the Palau del Govern Civil. When the separatist entered his office, the first thing he did was hang a portrait of Francesc Macià. According to the family, he never visited the party comrade whom he replaced, although he had him door to door.
Dencàs’ interim position was risky. The other leader of the Jerec, Miquel Badia, had been in Governació for months. Exceeding his functions as head of services, he clashed with high-ranking department officials and his expeditious methods with the detainees, and given the growing impotence of Selves, they had turned the Palau into “a horse yard”, according to the family of selves.
On June 26, Selves was able to leave his stays, take a walk down the Rambla and go to the Generalitat to present his resignation as minister to recover. Companys did not accept it.
The next day, he suffered an attack of colitis after eating and at midnight his doctors –among them, Jacint Vilardell, an expert in the digestive system, and who had already assisted Macià when the appendicitis that caused his death developed- advised to transfer him to Plato Clinic. Operated urgently, the minister left the operating room without options. He died in the early afternoon of June 28, 1934.
According to the Barcelona Civil Registry Archive, Selves died “of an intestinal perforation due to perisigmoiditis.” For some, like the lawyer Amadeu Hurtado, “his health suffered significantly from sleepless nights and constant nervous tension” for governing public order in a Catalonia in constant turmoil.
When that same night Dencàs received the press, he expressed that there was no need to make a eulogy for Selves because everyone knew his qualities and “it was impossible to find a single enemy”. The journalists did not believe it. He now had a free field to place more members of the Jerec in Gobernació and dominate the forces of public order. In the family and environment of the deceased, the conviction was born that he had poisoned him to get his wallet.
La Vanguardia has provided the information that appeared in the press and archives about the disease that Selves began to suffer in February 1934 to Jaume Gelonch Romeu, a digestive system surgeon at the Clínic-Costa Brava hospital, and Emilio Salgado Garcia, head of the toxicology unit clinic of the emergency area of ??the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, ??so that they could analyze it independently.
The fever that Selves had in May, according to Gelonch, may indicate the beginning of an infection process; In addition, diverticulitis usually gives it. In the second phase of that month, the politician experienced an improvement, which could be due to the fact that the infection was limited to the affected intestine, the sigma – the segment of the colon located in the center and left of the lower abdomen. That, however, did not rule out a slow progression of the infection towards an intra-abdominal abscess.
The press did not report in the first weeks whether Selves suffered from any abdominal symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, but he did follow a “very rigorous diet”. According to Salgado, she could have any of these symptoms, if not all. During the three weeks that she remained in bed, the disease progressed slowly. Until after what seemed like a recovery period, June 14-26, she worsened with a flare-up of sigma diverticulitis the next day.
In the intervention they found the two perforations, although it is not known if they sutured them or already chose not to do so. Overall, Gelonch maintains that “at the time there were few means against this disease.” There is no record that an autopsy was performed.
From a clinical toxicological point of view, Salgado assures that the usual suspect in a picture of atypical gastrointestinal symptoms is arsenic. In this case, it could be hypothesized whether it was the causative agent, since fever may appear and hemorrhagic ulcerative lesions can be observed in the digestive tract after ingesting a large amount.
However, he explains to the doctor: “Against us we have the selective location of the ulcerative lesions that ended in perforation (sigma) and the absence of neurological symptoms characteristic of a poisoning that can be survived for several weeks, in the form of headache, confusion, decreased memory, personality changes, hallucinations, delirium, and seizures. Selves did not suffer from any of these symptoms. In conclusion, “with the information available, that his death was due to poisoning is highly unlikely.” The minister’s death, then, was due to his ailment. His death, however, was considered key.
With Dencàs at the helm of Governació, the Fets d’October of 1934 took place. On the first anniversary of the death of Selves, Catalanists and left-wing republicans, such as the ERC deputy Francesc Senyal, concluded that if “that fine politician had not died, , cautious, prudent and tenacious”, Companys and his government would not have ended up in prison. Joaquim Amat-Piniella, from Manresa, added, “after October 6, an exclamation was unanimous among the people of Barcelona: ‘If Selves had lived, the disaster would not have occurred’ because ‘for some reason he represented within Esquerra a more polished and more civilized than that of that political faction, the Jerec’”.