The man arrested for the murder of the Spanish student Claudia Tacoronte, 21 years old, has confessed to the authorship of the crime, according to what the Mexican chancellor communicated to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. The suspect, identified as Francisco Javier and known as 'El Trompas', was arrested this Thursday in the state of Morelos, five days after the murder.
The Morelos Prosecutor's Office plans to charge him with a crime of femicide and request the maximum penalty of 70 years in prison provided by state legislation. The prosecutor, Fernando Blumenkron, explained that the nature of the injuries suffered by the victim allows framing the crime within that offense.
Tacoronte was stabbed on September 12 in Cuautla, where she had gone to the National Fair of Traditional Medicine. The young woman, originally from Santa Brígida (Gran Canaria), was studying fourth grade of Early Childhood Education at the University of Granada and had been doing an academic exchange at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM) since August.
A neighbor recognized the suspect
The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, Omar García Harfuch, confirmed the arrest and released a photograph of the arrested. Authorities had managed to identify him based on witness testimonies and security cameras and there was an arrest warrant against him.
The operation involved the participation of the Navy, the National Guard, the Attorney General's Office, the Morelos Prosecutor's Office, and state authorities. The arrested had a criminal record and had previously been pointed out for thefts in the area.
The investigation remains open. The Prosecutor's Office is trying to locate, among other evidence, Claudia's mobile phone and the weapon used in the attack. Authorities maintain that the arrested person stole the young woman's phone and have ruled out, for the moment, a sexual component in the crime.
The governor points to a robbery and rules out links to organized crime
The governor of Morelos, Margarita González Saravia, has stated that the arrested would not be related to organized crime. According to the version offered by the state leader before the confession was known, the attack would have occurred during a robbery.
"Apparently it was a robbery, it was a struggle for a robbery. When she screams, he attacks her," explained González Saravia, who defined the suspect as a "common criminal."
The Prosecutor's Office, however, has announced that it will file the charge as femicide. "The injuries he inflicted on Claudia allow us to establish that what happened was a femicide, due to the way he did it," Blumenkron has stated.
The family travels to Mexico to repatriate the body
The arrest coincides with the arrival of Tacoronte's relatives in Mexico to begin the procedures aimed at repatriating the body to Spain. The authorities of Morelos are in communication with the Spanish Consulate to facilitate the arrangements.
The crime has generated a strong shock in the Spanish and Mexican university communities. Claudia is the fourth student from UAEM murdered in just seven months, after Kimberly Ramos, Karol Toledo, and Michelle Itzayana Fuentes, cases that had already provoked mobilizations and student strikes.
The University of Granada has suspended the planned exchanges with UAEM and the case has opened a debate about the safety conditions of Spanish students displaced to Mexico.
Morelos, among the states with the highest femicide rate
The murder has also brought attention to violence against women in Morelos. The state records a rate of 1.97 femicide victims per 100,000 women, compared to the national average of 0.55, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System collected by EFE.
In intentional homicides of women, the rate in Morelos reaches 4.49 victims per 100,000, compared to 1.27 for the country as a whole. Amnesty International had demanded before the arrest that the murder of the Spanish student be investigated as femicide.