Alvaro Luna Hernandez

ALVARO LUNA HERNANDEZ
#255735
Hughes Unit
Rt. 2, Box 4400
Gatesville, TX 76597

Alvaro Luna Hernandez is a Chicano-Mexicano political prisoner sentenced to 50 years in prison for aggravated assault on an officer when he disarmed a sheriff attempting to shoot him.  Join the campaign to free Alvaro at www.freealvaro.net

Personal Background

He was born in Alpine, Texas, in 1952, into a racially segregated society, where police ruled the Chicano barrio with an iron fist. On June 12, 1968, Alvaro was with 16 year old Ervay Ramos and witnessed Ramos murdered in cold-blood by Alpine Police Bud Powers, a known racist cop with a history of brutality against Chicanos. Powers never served a day in jail and escaped justice under the protection of the U.S. judicial system.

Since that day in 1968, Alvaro worked tirelessly for Chicano rights and against police brutality.  As a result, he was also the constant target of police harassment and brutality.  In 1976 Alvaro was falsely accused of murder, for which he narrowly escaped the death penalty, destined instead to serve a life sentence.  After media highlighted Alvaro’s unfair trial and proof of his innocence, he was released. Later on he also suffered a beating at the hands of several police officers.  Two deputy sheriffs were convicted for the criminal civil rights violations stemming from the beating. The police received five years probation and never spent a day in jail.

In the 1990s Alvaro worked as the national coordinator of the Ricardo Aldape Guerra Defense Committee, which led the successful struggle to free Mexican national Aldape Guerra from Texas’ death row after being framed by Houston police for allegedly killing a cop.  In 1993, Alvaro was a non-governmental organization (NGO) delegate before the 49th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland. Before the U.N. General Assembly, he vociferously exposed and condemned the U.S. government’s dismal human rights record and its human rights violations of U.S. political prisoners.

Days later, Alvaro returned to his mother’s house to eat and change clothes. The police found out and a heavily armed law enforcement contingent converged on the home. Without identifying themselves, police began shooting indiscriminately at the house, cars parked in front and at the public street lights. At trial, witnesses described the police shooting as a “war zone.” The police wanted Alvaro dead and were refusing to allow him to surrender.

At his arraignment, Alvaro condemned the illegal occupation of the Southwest, the false charges, institutionalized racism, and reasserted his people’s inalienable rights to self-defense and to self-determination of oppressed nations. He invoked international law and demanded to be treated as a prisoner of war under Geneva Convention principles and other human rights accords.

Afterward in a TV interview, the sheriff stated that Alvaro only disarmed him of his gun and never acted aggressive or in a threatening way.  The video clip, considered pivotal evidence, was to be subpoenaed in his 1997 trial, but the prosecution squelched its introduction and convinced the judge to block it, then forced the Sheriff to recant his off-the-record story in subsequent testimony.

Life in Prison

In prison, Alvaro was later accused by prison administrators of gang affiliations and transferred to X-Wing (investigative/administrative segregation) of the Beto Unit. Alvaro consistently denied gang affiliations and stated he was targeted because of his political views, and connections he made with fellow Mexicano captives. This segregation was part of a campaign of harassment by prison administrators that included, at one point, transferring Alvaro from laundry room to field labor work detail and threats from guards. He has now spent more than 10 years in the repressive “control unit” of the Texas prison.