The arrest took place in Cuautla itself, about five days after the crime and less than 30 hours after the Morelos Prosecutor’s Office issued a wanted notice for the suspect. Mexico’s Security Secretary, Omar García Harfuch, said the Navy, National Guard, Attorney General’s Office, Morelos Prosecutor’s Office and state authorities coordinated in locating him.
Tacoronte arrived in Mexico in mid-August to take part in an academic exchange at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM) and lived in Cuernavaca. Prosecutors are initially investigating her death as a possible feminicide, a classification used to investigate the violent deaths of women until it is determined whether gender-related motives were involved.
The killing has caused deep shock in the university community. Claudia Tacoronte is the fourth UAEM student to be murdered in just seven months, following Kimberly Ramos, Karol Toledo and Michelle Itzayana Fuentes. Morelos also has one of Mexico’s highest feminicide rates, with 1.97 victims per 100,000 women, compared with a national average of 0.55, according to official data cited in reports on the case.
