2 UAEM prep school students killed in Cuernavaca, weeks after Spanish student’s femicide

Just two weeks after the femicide of a Spanish exchange student in Morelos, two prep school students were shot dead in the state capital, Cuernavaca, on Saturday night.

After attending a birthday party in the Chula Vista neighborhood, a group of teenagers was reportedly gathered on the street when attackers on motorcycles approached. They fired indiscriminately into the crowd, killing two boys and seriously wounding another. 

This brings to six the number of students murdered in Morelos this year, including Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, the 21-year-old Spaniard who was stabbed to death on Sept. 12. 

Like Tacoronte, the other three victims — Kimberly Ramos Beltrán and Karol Gómez Toledo, killed in March, and Michelle Itzayana Fuentes, murdered in June — were all studying at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos (UAEM). 

The two boys killed on Saturday — identified as Gael and Christian, both 17 years old — were students of the UAEM-affiliated high school, the “Antonio L. Mora del Castillo” Preparatory School.

Upon hearing the gunshots, neighbors notified emergency services. Agents from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGEM) arrived soon thereafter and cordoned off the crime scene to collect ballistic evidence, while beginning an inquiry to determine the motive for the attack.

The UAEM issued a statement offering condolences to the families of the victims, decrying the violence and demanding justice, as well as greater assurances of security for the university community. 

“Outrage is no longer enough,” it said. “We neither want to nor should we get used to a permanent state of mourning at the UAEM.”

On Sunday, UAEM students — joined by members of Somos (a new center-left political party) and dozens of local residents — staged a protest outside the FGEM headquarters demanding results and calling for greater transparency in the investigation of these murders, as well as unsolved disappearances of female students.

Attorney General Fernando Blumenkron Escobar responded by saying that some progress has been made, though critics say such progress has only occurred in cases where considerable public pressure has been generated, pointing to the quick arrest that occurred after Tacoronte’s murder. 

The FGEM said it “will exhaust all lines of investigation” in its pursuit of justice. 

With reports from El Financiero, CNN, La Jornada, Proceso and Tribuna de México