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Sadness and silence filled the Faculty of Education Sciences in Granada (southern Spain) this Monday, where the usual joyful faces of the start of the academic year were overshadowed after news of the murder of Claudia Tacoronte, a 21-year-old student who was in Mexico, in a suspected femicide.
At this university, where the young woman was studying until she began an exchange program in Mexico just a month ago, a minute of silence was held in memory of Claudia, a native of the Canary Islands and a fourth-year Early Childhood Education student.
The young woman was stabbed on Saturday in Cuautla, about 100 kilometers south of Mexico City, in a crime that the Prosecutor's Office is investigating as a femicide, local authorities reported this Sunday.
Tacoronte, 21, was in Mexico as part of an academic exchange at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM).
From the Spanish government, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, who is from the Canary Islands like the victim, stated that "in the face of such unjust acts, it is impossible for words to offer enough comfort to her loved ones."
Mourning in universities
At the entrance to her faculty, the coordinator of the Bilingual Primary Education degree and Claudia's exchange tutor, Magdalena Ramos, told EFE that she was "a girl full of hope" and was "very excited" about her stay in Mexico; "everything was going very well," she said, noting that she had spoken with the young woman last Friday.
The Dean of the Faculty of Education, Katia Caballero, described the day as "a very strange, gray day" and acknowledged that the university community is "broken" by news that is "very difficult to digest."
"Many students have traveled to Mexico or other Latin American countries and nothing has happened. This time it happened, and we regret it deeply because for us, as an institution, it has broken us," the dean indicated.
Following the murder, the university will analyze the situation and study whether it is necessary to make any decisions regarding international agreements, explained Caballero, who added that it will be necessary to know in detail what happened and if there is a risk of it happening again in order to act accordingly.
All public universities in Andalusia joined the mourning, expressing their "deepest pain" and "firm condemnation" this Monday for the "terrible and intolerable" murder, while also calling for a "transparent and agile" investigation that will allow justice to be served as soon as possible.
The Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) also released a statement, noting: "This tragedy reminds us, unfortunately, of the special vulnerability and sense of insecurity that many women continue to face. No woman should feel unprotected or have her freedom to study, travel, and develop her life project conditioned."
[Publicidad]