US army hit over death of recruit who was allegedly sexually harassed

Houston: A powerful Latino civic group on Friday called for authorities to probe the death of a Mexican-American soldier who had been the target of sexual harassment on an army base where a similar death occurred in 2020. A 20-year-old Army private, Ana Basaldua Ruiz, was found dead in her quarters at Fort Hood, the huge Texas military base where she served, on March 13, the army press office at the base said in a statement. The victim’s mother, Alejandra Ruiz, told the Telemundo network that her daughter told her “a sergeant was harassing her” and that she was being hounded. She said she was officially told that her daughter “hanged herself,” but that she did not believe it. “Supposedly they took it as a suicide, nothing more, and that they were going to begin investigations,” her father, Baldo Basaldua, told the network.