The exchange student murdered in Mexico was called Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, she was 21 years old and was a native of Gran Canaria, where she was enrolled during a course at the public university. According to the prosecutor of the Morelos region, the events occurred last Saturday at the House of Culture of Cuautla, a municipality located about 100 kilometers south of Mexico City.
Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera was studying Early Childhood Education at the University of Granada and was doing an academic mobility stay at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, where she was murdered in a crime that the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating as femicide, according to local authorities.
Magdalena Ramos, the student’s tutor, said in statements to the media that they had “a great relationship” and that even the day before the tragedy they had had a conversation on the phone. “We had a good relationship, the day before the tragedy we had spoken on the phone. We are very affected, dismissing a student is always hard, but when the causes are of this nature, managing it is more difficult,” he stated.
At the moment, not many more details about the event have been known. The Consulate General of Spain in Mexico City is following the case very closely and remains in contact with the family, while the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos itself has shown in a statement its “deep indignation” at what happened, in addition to stating that they activated “the corresponding institutional protocols and mechanisms” once it became aware of the events in order to “keep the channels of communication and care open with the family, through the University of Granada and with the Spanish consular authorities.”
The UEAM has also demanded from the Attorney General’s Office of Morelos and the competent authorities “an immediate, exhaustive investigation with a strict gender perspective to guarantee justice and avoid impunity”, before calling for “act with responsibility and sensitivity” when addressing the case and reporting on what happened.
Mexican authorities are working on a case classified as “feminicide”
For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office has regretted the death of the young woman and has expressed its “solidarity” to her family, loved ones and the UAEM community, while noting in a statement on social networks that “since the facts became known, the competent authorities have been working in a coordinated manner on the case.”
“The State Attorney General’s Office initiated the investigation and activated the corresponding protocols; that institution will be in charge of determining the circumstances of what happened and, where appropriate, the responsibilities as the investigation progresses,” highlighted the governor of Morelos.
“Likewise, contact has been established with the Spanish Consulate in Mexico to provide institutional support to the victim’s relatives,” confirmed González Saravia, who has guaranteed that the authorities will contribute “to clarifying the facts” and will work to improve the security conditions of women, youth and those who make up the university community in Morelos.”
The prosecutor of Morelos, Fernando Blumenkron, has highlighted in statements to the press that “the State Attorney General’s Office intervened from the first moment in the removal of the body with a feminicide protocol, which is one of the indications that have been given for any violent death of a woman.” “We are in the investigations,” he concluded.
Minute of silence and mourning in Las Palmas and Granada
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has called for a minute of silence as a sign of condemnation and regret for the death of the young woman at noon this Monday in all its centers, its sources have announced.
On the other hand, the president of the association of Public Universities of Andalusia and rector of the Pablo de Olavide (UPO) of Seville, Francisco Oliva, said this Monday that he was in “shock” after learning of the “terrible” murder of a 21-year-old Erasmus student from the University of Granada (UGR), in the Mexican town of Cuautla, located in the state of Morelos.
Oliva regretted that the life of a young woman, and with it that of an entire family, had been “cut short.” The Andalusian public universities will launch a statement of rejection and support for the UGR and the appropriate measures will be studied for Erasmus students who are in Mexico pursuing their studies. In fact, Mexico is usually one of the most popular destinations for university students who opt for Latin America, acknowledges Francisco Oliva.
The University of Granada (UGR) has expressed its “strongest rejection and absolute condemnation” of the murder of the student Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, who was on an academic mobility stay at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM), perpetrated in the municipality of Cuautla (Mexico). In a statement, the UGR government team has made itself available to the consular authorities of Spain in Mexico and the young woman’s family “to provide all the necessary support at this time” and has called for a minute of silence in memory of Claudia this Monday, September 14, at 11:00 a.m. at the door of all the UGR work centers.
The university community of the UGR also conveys its “heartfelt condolences, solidarity and affection to Claudia’s family, close friends, colleagues in these moments of such deep pain” and reiterates the “imperative need to eradicate all forms of violence exercised against women” as a “public institution committed to the transfer of knowledge, the defense of human rights and the construction of critical thinking.”
The rector of the UGR, Pedro Mercado, has stressed that “it is a day of deep sadness and also of a lot of institutional anger having learned the very sad news of the murder by violent death of our student Claudia Tacoronte in the state of Morelos, in Mexico.” In statements sent by the UGR, Mercado has detailed that the University activated the international protocol as soon as it learned of the crime and contacted both the consulate and the embassy in Mexico to “learn more about the circumstances of the events.”
Likewise, he contacted the young student’s family to “make ourselves available to them in everything we could as a university at this time to accompany them in that very sad and acute pain that this death causes us.”
