The President of a Mexican Human Rights Organization Declares, "We will Protect You!"
Through the introduction of the warm-hearted couple we met earlier during our visit, we met with the officials and president of an influential Mexican human rights organization.
The president listened to the practitioners' introduction of Falun Dafa, learned of the brutal persecution in China, and heard about their plans to go to Los Cabos to hold a peaceful protest. After listening, the president said, "I can see you are very good people. We will protect you!" He wrote a letter to the head of the Department of Economics and asked him to designate a place where Falun Gong practitioners could hold their peaceful protest during the APEC meeting. We were also invited to perform the five sets of exercises during our meeting.
Several days later, with assistance from Spanish-speaking practitioners, we visited many government officials on various levels and clarified the truth to them. Dafa practitioners' purity moved the hearts of many government officials, and we deeply felt the mighty power of Dafa.
Mexican people are really warm and kind people. Their hearts are open and they seem to be waiting for Dafa. When we distributed Dafa flyers in the subway, people lined up to get them, and took the time to read them carefully. Many people asked where to find a practice site.
Practitioners who had already arrived at Los Cabos told us they applied for a permit to create a local practice site, but the local government didn't have the jurisdiction to issue the permit for an appeal or protest at an international meeting held by the federal government. It was very close to the opening of APEC, and some government officials responsible for the meeting and its security had already gone to Los Cabos. After clarifying the truth to some decision makers in the government, we decided that some practitioners who had clarified the truth to the Mexico City government should go to Los Cabos with practitioners who were already there to open a channel of communication.
Clarifying the Truth and Paving the Way for Practitioners Entering Los Cabos to Peacefully Appeal Together
There were no practitioners in Los Cabos [a remote desert resort located at the southern tip of Baja California, the long peninsula located directly south of the State of California, USA]. In order to prepare for the appeal activity during APEC, a Western practitioner drove for ten days to Los Cabos from New York prior to the meeting. Practitioners from other places in the U.S., Canada and other countries also went to Los Cabos to promote the Fa and clarify the truth.
On Saturday, one week before APEC, we flew to Los Cabos from Mexico City. At first it was sunny, but then sky above the Los Cabos Airport was filled with dark clouds. It seemed as if the evil had already started to set up a field.
All practitioners had to enter through the airport. Our priority was to clarify the truth and to pave the way for larger groups of practitioners who would arrive later.
When we exited the airport, I was the only person with an Asian face and fell under scrutiny. I was asked by authorities, "Where is your hotel?" I learned after talking to the two practitioners who came to pick us up that the airport immigration officer called them to the office to have a talk when they entered Mexico. Although their return flight was scheduled for October 30, their visa was only issued until October 23, which meant they would have to leave before the beginning of the APEC summit. They were told they could extend their visa at the immigration bureau. After that information, we realized the seriousness of the issue.
This reminded me of an incident. One week prior, when several practitioners from Toronto came to Los Cabos, they were also had to undergo special examination and they were even asked to sign a guarantee in which they were asked to promise to obey the local laws. The practitioners refused to sign the guarantee because it singled us out and implied we were criminals as a result of the propaganda campaign by Jiang's regime. We knew we always conduct ourselves according to the Dafa principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance and always conduct ourselves in a legal manner. However, we didn't take this incident seriously enough at the time or consider the deeper implications.
When we returned to the hotel we discussed this issue. Most practitioners thought the airport is the focal point and we must look at all things from the perspective of the Fa and realize the nature of the evil. We must deeply clarify the truth and breakthrough with all arrangements made by the old forces in other dimensions, aimed at interfering with our truth-clarification in Mexico.
On Sunday, we went to the airport and told them we were Falun Gong practitioners. We met with the head of the airport immigration office, a Mr. J., and queried him about the trouble Falun Gong practitioners had when going through customs. Mr. J. was the official dealing with those Falun Gong practitioners' entrance, and he had obviously received orders to deal with Falun Gong practitioners differently. He emphasized that their office did not aim to single out Falun Gong practitioners and limit their stay in Mexico, and he showed us the visa of several Midwesterners, who were also given short visas of 2-3 days. He said, "As APEC is approaching, the visas given to certain organizations allowing them to stay in Los Cabos will be shorter and shorter. Falun Gong also belongs to the category of 'issue organizations.'" Obviously, vicious lies and slander from Jiang's regime had already arrived in Los Cabos.
People always have a knowing side. Although there was an order issued for how to deal with Falun Gong, Mr. J. mentioned during our talk that he always felt he was doing something bad when he carried out the order.
In the beginning, when we talked to him from the perspective of human rights and law, it wasn't very effective. Mr. J. said, "The freedom of speech and assembly in the Mexican Constitution are Mexican citizens' rights, you have no right to appeal or unfurl banners here as tourists, otherwise we can expel you right away. We could expel you if you distribute flyers in the street, only we didn't do that."
Practitioners who arrived in Los Cabos earlier demonstrated and taught Dafa exercises daily outside and distributed flyers. It seemed the Mexican government had already established a premise to expel us at any time. We clearly knew that only by validating the truth about Dafa could we awaken Mr. J.'s conscience, to let the Mexican government learn about Dafa practitioners noble mind and the purpose of our trip, which was the key to solve this problem.
Afterwards, we had a long talk with Mr. J., which lasted three hours and explained the situation regarding our practice and also the persecution to him in great detail. After clearly explaining to him the purpose of our trip, which was to peacefully appeal, we also told him that all Falun Gong-held activities are public, and we invited him to visit our practice site or hotel. We sent forth righteous thoughts as we clarified the truth.
Finally Mr. J. smiled, "If Falun Gong practitioners have trouble when entering Mexico, ask me for help."
We did it! We had won the first battle through truth clarification, but we realized we could not relax now. On Monday, we decided to clarify the truth to the immigration agency and then to the APEC sponsors.
Before we left, we received a call from Mr. J., he told us, "Several of my friends who are responsible for security during APEC want to meet you." Half an hour later, Mr. J. had us meet five security officials. We realized this was an excellent opportunity to deeply clarify the truth. First, we showed them the Spanish-language VCD about the persecution and gave them a brief introduction of Falun Gong, which we had prepared beforehand. We also told them in depth about the persecution and said we came to Mexico to conduct a peaceful and rational appeal.
After listening to us, the officials all said they understood. They obviously still had concerns and Mr. G, who was in charge, told us to strictly follow Mexican laws.
Then our practitioners explained in detail how Falun Dafa practitioners had treated everyone with great compassion and tolerance during the past three years, amidst the most brutal and evil persecution. They had strictly followed the principles of "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance" and didn't resort to using any violent protest actions. We explained that we have taken every opportunity to clarify the truth to the world's people, expose the evil's lies and call for an end to the persecution. We further told them that the founder of Falun Gong had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; that in Canada, the members of parliament called Falun Gong practitioners model citizens; that Falun Gong was one of the few organizations allowed to appeal during the annual Economic World Summit and during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City last year. After September 11th, Falun Gong practitioners had become well known for their peacefulness and their obedience of the law. In Ottawa, the police were very relaxed with us and oftentimes there were no officers present when we gathered in front of the Chinese consulate. The Ottawa City Council members had called Falun Gong practitioners' appeal a model gathering.
We emphasized that we hoped the APEC meeting would conclude successfully, but we wanted to let the world's people see us, a group of good people, who believe in "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance." We wanted to expose the Jiang group's brutal persecution and their lies and call for an end to the persecution!
We also produced pictures and showed the Mexican congressmen and high-level government officials' support for us. The human rights organization wrote to the head of Department of Economics and asked to provide protection for us and asked to allow us to appeal during APEC and arranged for wide media coverage for us in Mexico City. We also introduced confirmation of international governments and organizations' support for us.
We said these as we carried righteous thoughts in our hearts. Righteous thoughts and the truth changed everyone's heart.
Mr. G. said, "You are free in Mexico. You can appeal, use banners or speak out any words " They also asked us to choose a protest spot outside the restricted lines for the meeting, and that we only needed to confirm with them. At the same time, they asked us to have a person to act as a coordinator, to make sure that our actions followed our promises.
Practitioners also told them that Jiang's group would definitely apply pressure on the Mexican government. Jiang was afraid of Falun Gong practitioners wearing yellow T-shirts. The officials found it laughable. Mr. G said, "This is Mexico, we won't give in to pressure."
When large groups of practitioners arrived during APEC, the Mexican government did not use the blacklist to block Falun Gong practitioners, and they didn't give us visa troubles, either. One U.S. practitioner forgot to bring his passport, but the airport official(s) let him enter right after learning he was a Falun Gong practitioner.
Of course, we also had omissions when clarifying the truth. When we discussed how to prevent people from doing bad things while claiming to be Falun Gong practitioners, we proposed that they could write down practitioners' individual background information in order to distinguish them from us. This gave airport immigration officials the excuse to copy practitioners' passport information upon their entry.
(To be continued)
Category: News & Events
