Spanish student Claudia Tacoronte’s alleged killer arrested in Cuautla
Authorities have captured Franciso Javier N, ‘El Trompas,’ accused of killing the 21-year-old last weekend in Morelos
Police in Cuautla, in the state of Morelos, Mexico, have arrested Francisco Javier N., alias “El Trompas,” the alleged killer of Spanish student Claudia Tacoronte. Officers tracked him down in the same municipality where he carried out the attack last Saturday night. Tacoronte had arrived in mid-August as an exchange student at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM) to study for a semester at the Institute of Educational Sciences on the Cuernavaca campus, in the state capital. The 21-year-old traveled to Cuautla over the weekend to attend a conference on medicinal plants.
On Saturday night, shortly before 9:00 p.m., the attacker arrived at the conference venue, the Casa de la Cultura in Cuautla, where some attendees were staying, including Tacoronte. In videos from the scene obtained by this newspaper, the suspect — wearing a white T-shirt and light-colored shorts, with a dark backpack — can be seen entering the premises, which had no security. Tacoronte was standing near the entrance. The suspect approached her and stabbed her. The young woman died shortly afterward.
At a press conference Thursday in Cuernavaca, Morelos State Attorney General Fernando Blumenkron confirmed that the suspect stole the young woman’s cellphone. Blumenkron also confirmed the account of what had happened. “Claudia arrived at the Casa de Cultura the day before [the murder]. She went about her normal activities. At 8:00 p.m. [on Saturday], she left the premises to have dinner,” the attorney general said, adding that upon returning, the young woman remained near the entrance inside the Casa de Cultura. “She smoked a cigarette, talked on her phone, and then this individual entered and committed the crime,” he added. The prosecutor noted that the suspect had a criminal record for residential burglaries.
Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch was the first to confirm the arrest. “We deeply regret the femicide of Claudia Tacoronte. We express our most sincere condolences and our full solidarity with her family and loved ones. From the moment this femicide came to light,” he said, federal and state authorities “launched a coordinated investigation to identify, locate, and arrest the perpetrator. As a result of this joint effort, the alleged perpetrator of this tragic crime is now in custody.”
According to sources close to the Cuautla municipal police, whom EL PAÍS consulted, the arrest took place near the market, on Insurgentes Street. Neighbors and shopkeepers who have a chat group where they discuss matters of common interest saw him pass by and posted a warning in the group. From there, they alerted the police, who found him intoxicated when he was arrested. The main suspect, whose image had been widely circulated throughout the country, had shaved his head and was wearing different clothes.
In the wake of the murder — which has sparked protests in Mexico and shocked Spain — Spanish universities announced that they will review their safety protocols before sending students to Mexico. Tacoronte, a student at the University of Granada, was on an exchange program at the UAEM. Four female students at that institution have been murdered so far this year in the state of Morelos (in central Mexico), prompting Spanish authorities to also recommend avoiding that area. This has been the case since the July update to the travel advisories citing “an increase in violence linked to drug trafficking, as well as kidnappings.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists Morelos among the “particularly dangerous areas where, for the time being, postponing non-essential visits is recommended.”
In Mexico, which has been mired in a maelstrom of widespread violence for at least two decades, hundreds of women are murdered each year: 735 in 2025, 857 the previous year, and 382 in the first seven months of 2026... The administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, of the ruling Morena party — founded by her predecessor and political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador — has been highlighting the drop in the murder rate. Since she took office in 2024, daily homicides have fallen by 50%. There have been improvements across large parts of the country. But not in Morelos, which borders Mexico City. The state is on track to exceed 1,500 annual victims, for a rate of 75 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
