I was one of the Falun Gong practitioners who went to Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, where Jiang Zemin, the president of China was visiting. The purpose of our trip was to introduce Falun Dafa to the people in those countries, and at the same time to clarify the true facts of Falun Dafa and to prevent people there from being cheated by Jiang Zemin. Jiang is not only persecuting the practitioners in China, but also spread lies to the local governments by telling them that we were dangerous and a threat to him. We held introductions, workshops, and taught many people how to do the exercises at the local parks. However, there were always a few policemen to be seen around us. The policemen were all very nice to us because they only saw us doing exercise peacefully. We certainly didn't look and act threatening. They even took pictures together with us. We told them the true story about Falun Gong. They said they only had to obey their orders from the top authority. They had no choice.
I arrived in Caracas at the Venezuela International Airport, from Buenos Aires, on April 13, 2001. This was my third stop during my South American hongfa trip. I was the only Asian looking man on the plane and I also happened to be the only passenger to be intercepted at the customs declaration area and forced to open my luggage and carry-on bag. I knew right away that the evil Jiang had already polluted the kind people's minds there. I also knew I had an opportunity to clarify the truth.
At the time I was not wearing a Falun Gong T-shirt and I tried to remain as peaceful and righteous minded as possible. Immediately after they found the Falun Gong brochures in my suitcase, they told me to give them my passport and all my air-tickets. They said it was for immigration procedures. But, I knew right away that Jiang's lies had tricked these customs officers. Then, they took me along with my luggage to a room where there were about 8 of them inside. They began to search all my belongings including a sleeping bag and asked me why I had brought the Falun Dafa brochures. I told them that I was a Falun Gong practitioner and a Canadian citizen and was there just to share Falun Gong with the people of Venezuela. I didn't bring anything dangerous. I showed the content of the brochure and pointed out that Falun Gong is free of charge.
They didn't stop searching and the way they checked my bag was a little rude. They even searched my pockets. Although I felt I was unfairly and rudely treated, I knew they didn't mean to be rude to me. I felt it was a good opportunity for me to clarify the truth and expose the evil acts by the president of China. I also demanded with a fairly calm voice that I wanted to speak with the Canadian Ambassador. They ignored my request and said I would be deported later that day. During the whole interrogation, I reminded myself to be as a Falun Gong practitioner and tried to remain very peaceful at all times. Some of them asked me the difference between Falun gong and other Qigong. So I did a little demo and explained to them about Falun Gong.
I asked them why I was the only one to be treated like this. At first they said this was just a regular check-up. I didn't believe them by the way they looked at me and searched through my luggage. I kept on insisting that I wanted to see the Canadian Ambassador. They ignored me again. A few hours later they said it was not against me or Falun Gong. They know Falun Gong is good based on what they have seen when they interviewed another US practioner and myself. [Note: another US practitioner was also detained and deported back to the US] Some of them have seen people practice in the parks in Caracas too. After I told them about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, finally they admitted it was the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, who told the president of Venezuela to detain and deport any Falun Gong practitioners before and during his visit because of his fear of Falun Gong. They had no choice other than to carry out the orders from higher authorities. I explained that our belief is all about Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. What's wrong with that? I took this opportunity to talk about the true story starting from 1992 when the Chinese government was actually promoting the Falun Gong due to the great health savings benefits and all the rewards, proclamations and citations that Falun Dafa has received. I told them about the brutal torture and fabricated immolation at Tiananmen Square. I also mentioned the Communist mentality of being afraid of seeing a great number of people doing the same thing as a threat to Jiang's power. Particularly, because among those 70 million practitioners many of them are government officials and military personnel. They paused a few seconds and they added they have been instructed to detain and check on any "Chinese-looking" people. Later I found out there four other Asian people, who arrived on a different flight, were detained for a few hours and had their belongings searched. Those four people didn't speak any English or Spanish. They only spoke Cantonese and some Mandarin. The immigration officer asked me to help translate. I found out they were simply making a connection to Guyana and Barbados was their destination. These people from Canton province felt very irritated about being questioned and treated unfairly. When the immigration officer didn't find anything suspicious about them, they let them go about three hours later.
They said if I had come at different time from Jiang, I would have been admitted, but now they have to follow the orders from the top. I realized they are also unknowing victims. They confiscated all the brochures, Falun Gong T-shirts, CDs, tapes and 2 Zhuan Falun books. They didn't return my passport and tickets to me until I flew back and landed in Buenos Aires.
During my 13 hours in detention, I tried to utilize every opportunity to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and introduce the practice. Although some of the officers became more understanding and showed an interest in wanting to read the book, China Falun Gong, some of them still treated me like a criminal. I was not allowed to make any phone calls. They even followed me into the washroom to make sure I was under their control at all times. I also mentioned that Falun Gong practitioners had no trouble entering Chile and Argentina and we had taught around 150 people in Buenos Aires and quite a few in Chile. I told them that if they were not secure about us, they could always send the police to come and monitor our activities. .
When I was being deported, they said that I had to go back to Argentina because I came from Argentina even though I had tickets back to Vancouver via Miami and Denver. Right before I got on the plane, they said all my flights had been rearranged from Buenos Aires all the way back to Vancouver. However, by the time I received my passport and tickets back at the end of my flight to Buenos Aires, I realized they lied to me. I tried to get Argentina Airlines to help me resolve the problem, but they seemed unwilling and simply stated it was not their problem. Finally, I went to United Airlines, and it took only a few minutes to get all the tickets reissued. Now that I have returned to Vancouver, I continue to believe that Dafa belongs to every sentient being, including the Latin American people. If I get another chance, I am ready to introduce Falun Dafa to the people there.
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Category: Persecution Outside China
