The man arrested in Mexico for the death of the 21-year-old Canary Islands student, Francisco Javier Meléndez, alias El Trompas, has confessed this Friday that he ended the life of Claudia Tacoronte, who died this Saturday stabbed in the State of Morelos (Mexico). Authorities point to the theft of the phone as the motive for the crime and rule out that the events had a sexual motivation, as was initially considered.
According to Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Minister José Manuel Albares this Friday, the detainee has confessed to the crime and his department has conveyed to Mexican authorities the Spanish Government’s gratitude for the “speed” with which the investigation is taking place.
The arrest of El Trompas was reported by Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, on his X account. Mexican authorities arrested him in Cuautla, the same city where the crime occurred.
El Trompas, a well-known figure to the Cuautla police with numerous prior records for theft, had been wanted since Wednesday. His arrest was, according to Garcia Harfuch, the result of a “joint effort” among different administrations, including the National Defense Secretariat, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), and the National Guard.
At the time of the murder, the security cameras of the homes near the crime scene placed Trompas in the vicinity of the Casa de la Cultura of this municipality in Morelos where the Canary Islands student took refuge after the attack.
Mexican justice will put him on trial charged with femicide, and the Morelos state prosecutor’s office will request 70 years in prison for him, the maximum penalty provided under state law.
Although he assaulted her to steal her phone, the way the detainee attacked Claudia Tacoronte and the characteristics of the injuries he inflicted allow the Prosecutor’s Office to maintain the charge of femicide, as confirmed this Thursday by the Morelos prosecutor, Fernando Blumenkron, in a press conference held at the Government Palace of Cuernavaca.
“The injuries he (the detainee) inflicted on Claudia allow us to establish that what happened was femicide,” Blumenkron stated.
The Morelos Penal Code “establishes as one of the causes for classifying an act as femicide that such types of injuries exist,” the prosecutor added.
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Morelos records the second highest rate in the country for femicide (1.97 victims per 100,000 women, compared to a national average of 0.55) and intentional homicide of women: (4.49, compared to a national average of 1.27), according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.
Claudia Tacoronte was murdered on Saturday after attending a traditional medicine event in Cuautla, a city located just under an hour from Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state, where the young woman had moved to take the final course in Early Childhood Education.
Following the incident, the University of Granada (UGR), where the girl studied and which is responsible for the program, has canceled the exchanges it had already arranged with the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM).
The Spanish academic institution has decided to suspend the stays of three students who were scheduled to travel in the coming weeks to the same Mexican university to which Claudia had temporarily moved, and has informed the rest of the students that they may return to Spain or request a change of study destination if they wish.
Claudia Tacoronte’s family arrives in Mexico this Friday
The family of the young Spanish student murdered, Claudia Tacoronte, 21, will arrive in Morelos (central Mexico) this Friday to begin the repatriation procedures for the body of the victim, the state prosecutor, Fernando Blumenkron, reported this Thursday.
“We are aware that tomorrow (Friday) Claudia’s relatives are coming (…) so that the Prosecutor’s Office can deliver Claudia’s body,” Blumenkron said in a press conference from the Government Palace of Cuernavaca, the state capital.
For her part, the state governor, Margarita González Saravia, reported that they are in “direct” communication with the Spanish consul in Mexico, Marcos Rodríguez, to assist with bureaucratic procedures.