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The murder this weekend of Spanish student Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera has once again focused attention on the insecurity in the central Mexican state of Morelos, where four students from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM) have been murdered so far in 2026, and violence against women keeps the state among those with the highest incidence in the country.
Tacoronte, 21, originally from Gran Canaria, was on an academic exchange at UAEM from the University of Granada and was murdered on Saturday in Cuautla, about 120 kilometers south of Mexico City.
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The Morelos Attorney General's Office is investigating the crime under the femicide protocol while it determines the circumstances and motive for the murder.
Her death adds to a series of cases that have shaken the UAEM community since the beginning of the year and sparked student protests demanding greater security.
In February, 18-year-old Kimberly Joselin Ramos Beltrán, a student at the Faculty of Accounting, Administration, and Informatics, disappeared after going to the Chamilpa campus in Cuernavaca.
Her body was located on March 2, and the Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation for femicide, for which there is at least one person arrested and linked to the investigation.
That same March 2, Karol Toledo Gómez, also 18 and a student at UAEM in Mazatepec, disappeared. Her body was found three days later in Coatetelco. The Prosecutor's Office later confirmed that the case is also being investigated as a femicide and maintained that, so far, there is no evidence linking both crimes.
In May, Michelle Itzayana Fuentes Calderón, a 15-year-old high school student and daughter of a UAEM academic, disappeared. The teenager left her home in Yautepec on May 24, and her body was located days later in the vicinity of Tepoztlán.
Morelos, close to Mexico City, is known for its attractive tourist destinations such as Cuernavaca, its capital, and "magical towns" like Tepoztlán, and is a regular weekend getaway for residents of the Mexican capital.
Femicidal violence despite a decline in homicides
The cases contrast with the general reduction in violence reported by the administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Mexican government reported that the daily average of intentional homicides in Morelos fell between September 2024 and last July, dropping from 3.5 to 2.1 daily murders.
However, official figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) placed Morelos among the entities with the highest incidence of femicide: between January and July, it recorded 21 victims, with a rate of 1.97 per 100,000 women, the second highest in the country.
The situation has kept the Gender Violence Alert in effect in eight Morelos municipalities, including Cuautla, where Tacoronte died; Cuernavaca, Jiutepec, Temixco, Xochitepec, Emiliano Zapata, Yautepec, and Puente de Ixtla.
[Publicidad]