President Lluís Companys and seven councillors were arrested at the Palau de la Generalitat and taken to the prison ship Uruguay. The repression left 74 dead and 252 injured in Barcelona.
On October 6, 1934, at half past six in the morning, armed forces of the Spanish army entered the Palau de la Generalitat and arrested President Lluís Companys and councillors Mestres, Lluhí, Comorera, Esteve, Gassol, Barrera, and Casanova. They were taken to the Model prison in Barcelona. Two days later, they were transferred to the prison ship Uruguay, docked at the Aviation wharf in the port of Barcelona, where they remained until January 7, 1935. At that point, an armoured convoy from the Spanish army took them to the cellular prison in Madrid.
Councillor Martí underwent emergency surgery during those days and remained convalescent in a hospital, so he was not transferred to Madrid. Councillor Casanova stayed on the prison ship Uruguay awaiting a judicial authority to determine which jurisdiction applied to him.
The arrest occurred a day after the Events of October 6, when the Generalitat government proclaimed the Catalan Republic within the federal Spanish Republic. The proclamation was not secessionist in nature, but the Madrid government interpreted it as a threat to the foundations of the State, as it altered the political architecture of the Republic, which at the time only contemplated one autonomous territory: Catalonia. The purpose of the Govern was to garner support for the claim to deepen self-government, in a context marked by the involution and anti-autonomism of the central executive, formed by the right-wing tripartite of PRR of Lerroux, CEDA of Gil-Robles, and the Agrarian Party of Martínez de Velasco.
The previous day had led to armed clashes between forces loyal to Catalonia (Mossos d'Esquadra, Assault Guards, and militiamen from Catalan and workers' unions) and the forces of the Spanish Republic government (army and Civil Guard). Just in Barcelona, the toll was 74 dead and 252 injured. Late the previous day, the Spanish army had positioned an artillery battery in the Sant Jaume square and had bombed the Palau de la Generalitat and the town hall, where couples who had married that afternoon took refuge along with their guests. After twelve hours of resistance, Companys ordered the surrender, but the military stormed the Palau de la Generalitat with fixed bayonets.
The information about these events, collected by elnacional.cat, allows for a detailed reconstruction of the first hours of repression and the subsequent imprisonment of the Govern. For the residents of Barcelona, the episode marked the beginning of a period of intervention in the Generalitat and political persecution that would last for the following months.
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