The last days and hours of the life of the Latina soldier Ana Fernanda Basaldua Ruiz may be key to clarifying her death at the Fort Hood Texan base.
Her family and her friends say that she was sad and anxious to leave the base, and they find it hard to believe that the 20-year-old took her own life, as the Army claims from the first investigations into she.
Noticias Telemundo reconstructed what could have happened, based on testimonies, before the discovery this Monday of the young woman's body in a military maintenance area.
[A Latina soldier found dead in Fort Hood who told her mother that she was being harassed: “She told me that bad things were happening”]
Two friends of the soldier reported to Telemundo News the harassment that the soldier told them she had suffered since she was assigned to the base in 2022. They point to a sergeant, whom Basaldua reported to the commanders, they say, but to no avail: they say that she did not receive any punishment, and that she was transferred from the platoon.
And they also mention another soldier, a colleague of the soldier at the base.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division said Thursday there was no evidence the death was the result of a criminal act, vowing to "thoroughly investigate information related to harassment."
In a press conference on Friday, Commander Sean C. Bernabe said that he takes any complaint of harassment "very seriously" and that he is investigating himself "thoroughly" to "take action."
"He said that his life was wrong, that he wanted to die"
Family and friends also mention an incident in which Basaldua was allegedly involved on the night of Friday to Saturday, hours before her death.
The soldier herself went with some friends, also in the military, to a club in Austin, just over an hour south.
When they returned, the youths entered a store inside the base and presumably took some items without paying, the soldier's father, Baldo Basaldua, told Telemundo News.
The young woman, he added, was able to take some perfumes.
Ana Fernanda Basaldua Ruiz, 20, was found dead on Monday, March 13, at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
family courtesy
According to her father, who lives in Long Beach, California, the young woman was detained for about 12 hours.
His daughter called him on Saturday and told him what happened: "He told me: 'You know what, dad? I'm sorry for not answering you, but I was with the police all day. Do you think?' happened? Is everything okay?' And he answered me: 'No, everything is wrong.'
"She told me that they had given her, I think, 90 days of
extra duty,
they had punished her and well, she showed up for work the next day [Sunday, March 12] because she still said good morning to me, as she did every day. At that moment he began to say that he was not comfortable, that his whole life was wrong, that he wanted to die. And yes, he sent me a message that if he did not answer me it was because of that. And I kept sending him more messages, but he didn't read them to me anymore," he said.
[Friends of soldier Ana Basaldua say she was harassed at Fort Hood by a sergeant and another soldier before she died]
Asked about this incident at the press conference this Friday, Commander Sean C. Bernabe assured: "I will not share any information about good or bad conduct in the interest of family privacy. What I would tell you is that we are at So much of some of the stressors in Ana's life, it's not about bullying but it's about stressors in her life that I know those stressors will be fully investigated as they try to understand the context, the circumstances and perhaps the causes of her death."
"I want to die now": father of the soldier who died in Fort Hood tells how his last calls were
March 16, 202303:31
"He told me that they were all good bastards"
Her mother, Alejandra Ruiz Zarco, who lives in Mexico with another daughter, last spoke to the soldier on Wednesday.
She told him that she was feeling unwell on the base, and mentioned that a soldier she was meeting had tried to suffocate her in February, an alleged assault by her. She also spoke to several of her friends recently.
"He told me that they were all good bastards," the woman told Telemundo News, "he told me that there was another person, a Puerto Rican who wanted her, who had gone out with him a few times, but who tried to choke her. He didn't tell me how he He didn't tell me either [if he reported it to the military commanders] nor do I think he did."
Basaldua's friends have also told Telemundo News the problems of alleged harassment that the military told them to suffer from that soldier and also from a sergeant, whom, they say, he did denounce his superiors but without results.
The base did not respond to questions from Noticias Telemundo about these incidents.
Basaldua received another sanction at the end of 2023 in Fort Hood after traces of marijuana were detected in him during a routine blood test, according to what his father and a friend told Telemundo News.
She was imposed a penalty of 45 days of extra work.
During that time of punishment, her friend noticed that Basaldua was feeling discouraged.
"I heard her down, she barely wanted to talk to me. I insisted that she talk to me. A week of her
extra duty
passed and I began to notice her differently. I told her, don't walk away from me, try to continue the conversation. Answer me, no leave me in seen, talk to me because at the end of the day, I'm here," explained her friend, who also serves as a military man, at the Fort Knox base in Tennessee, and who asked to withhold her name for fear of reprisals.
A letter written by Basaldua to a Latina friend in the Army.
Courtesy
"Mommy, I'm going to do everything I can to leave"
Her mother attributes the incident the weekend before her death to an attempt to get her expelled: "It's clear to me that she no longer wanted to be in that place. She told me: 'Mommy, I'm going to do everything possible to be able to leave. with you to Mexico for a good time".
“Knowing my daughter, it's clear to me that she was doing things to get them to punish her, to make them think she wasn't a good person to be in the Army.
She believed that with this she was going to be able to get away, ”said Ruiz Zarco.
The young woman was also planning a trip to California with her friend in April: "I know she was going through things, but she was going to go to California with me next month," she explained to Noticias Telemundo, "she told me that she had bought his flight to go on March 31".
Basaldua further told his friend (who serves on the Fort Hood base and also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation) that he would not renew his Army contract when it expired in August, and that he planned to move to Long Beach, where his father lives, who corroborated his intentions to leave the Army.
"I do not conceive": mother of soldier killed in Fort Hood rejects the hanging version
March 16, 202302:42
Her friend agreed that she would not be surprised if Basaldua's intention had been to leave the Army before finishing her contract: “I don't doubt it, because Basa [diminutive with which she affectionately knows the soldier] no longer wanted to be here.
When I asked her which
duty station
are you going to choose to take it too, she told me: 'I don't want this anymore, this is not for me'." She wanted to go back to school, lead her normal life and be with her family .
It was what she missed the most.
Being able to be with her family," she added.
Politicians and social groups have called for an investigation into the death of the combat engineer, who served 15 months in the First Cavalry Division.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) called on the FBI to act, and indicated how recruitment will be affected again, as occurred after the murder of soldier Vanessa Guillén on the same base and after denouncing harassment, unless it can be ensure the safety of Latino soldiers.
"I know that it would never hurt"
"I know she would never hurt herself," her friend explained, "she could say a lot of things, but she would never hurt herself. When her dad explained to me that they are trying to say it's suicide, I said no, that's not It's true. Basa isn't like that. I knew Basa a lot. I talked to her every day."
On Facebook, Basaldua made his last post on March 11, when he shared a message from another user that said: "Right now, not even Christopher Columbus conquers me."