Spanish exchange student at University of Morelos murdered in Mexico

A Spanish exchange student was killed Saturday night in a stabbing in Cuautla, Morelos (in central Mexico). The attack on Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, 21, who was studying early childhood education, occurred during an alleged robbery near the local Casa de la Cultura in the city center. The Morelos Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating the crime as a femicide, has not ruled out any lines of inquiry. “We immediately contacted the Spanish Consulate,” said State Attorney General Fernando Blumenkron. This year alone, three other students from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), where Tacoronte was studying as an exchange student, have been murdered. Claudia’s death once again confronts Mexico with its trail of femicides.

The young woman was from the Canary Islands, a student at the University of Granada, and had been in Morelos for a month, according to a statement released by the university. She had come to study in Cuautla, a city of 187,000 people located just over 60 miles from Mexico City, the country’s capital.

On Saturday, Tacoronte had attended the opening of the National Medicinal Plant Festival, organized by the Mexican Institute of Traditional Medicines Tlahulli, which featured workshops and talks in downtown Cuautla: “Claudia came to this event with the desire to learn, connect with others, and be part of a community united around knowledge, medicinal plants, health, and collective care,” the organization said in a statement.

According to local media, the student was attacked around 11:00 p.m. on Saturday near the event venue. She tried to take refuge inside the Casa de la Cultura, but the assailant chased her inside with a knife. She died before emergency services arrived at the scene.

The crime has sparked outrage on both sides of the Atlantic. In Spain, both the regional premier of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and ministers Diana Morant (Science, Innovation and Universities) and Ángel Víctor Torres (Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory) — who is from the Canary Islands — have condemned the murder. For Mexico, it is yet another reminder of its grief.

In February, Kimberly Ramos disappeared while on her way to classes at the University of Morelos on the Cuernavaca campus, the state capital. Protests by her classmates forced the university to suspend classes. Her body was found 10 days later in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city. In early March, Karol Toledo, a nursing student at the same university, went missing, sparking more protests at UAEM. Her body was found three days later in Coatetelco, a few miles from where she lived in Mazatepec. Both were 18 years old.

On May 24, 15-year-old Michelle Itzayana Fuentes Calderón left her home in Yautepec to buy craft paper. She was a high school student at UAEM and the daughter of a professor at the same university. She went missing. Her body was found 10 days later in Tepoztlán, the neighboring tourist town.

In all three cases, the Mexican university has made the same statement it has now issued following the murder of Claudia Tacoronte. “The UAEM demands that the Morelos State Attorney General’s Office and the relevant authorities conduct an immediate, thorough investigation with a strict gender perspective to ensure justice and prevent impunity,” reads its statement. In Mexico, 1,250 women were murdered in the first seven months of this year, during which Morelos has maintained the second-highest rate of femicides in the country. Ninety-five percent of these crimes go unpunished.

The Consulate General of Spain in Mexico City is closely monitoring Claudia’s case. It is “in contact with the deceased’s family and in constant communication with Mexican judicial authorities, who are working to clarify the circumstances of the incident,” according to sources at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, the University of Granada (UGR) held a minute of silence on Monday in memory of its student at the entrance to all its faculties, schools, and workplaces. “The University of Granada expresses its strongest condemnation and absolute rejection of the murder of Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera,” the institution stated in a press release.

The administration of the Andalusian university has offered its full support to the young woman’s family and to the Spanish consular authorities in Mexico. The institution has also already contacted its approximately 20 students currently studying in Mexico. “The University of Granada reiterates the imperative need to eradicate all forms of violence against women,” it emphasized in its statement.

The rector of the UGR, Pedro Mercado, added: “This is a day of profound sadness and deep institutional outrage upon learning of the murder of our student Claudia Tacoronte. We activated the international protocol and contacted the embassy and the family to learn the circumstances in greater detail and make ourselves available to her relatives. Her death causes us acute pain.”

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