(Clearwisdom.net)
6. About the Appeal Location
So far, everything had gone smoothly and everybody was pleased. Practitioners that arrived on Monday had no problems clearing customs. However, on Tuesday the Mexican authorities stopped us from putting up a banner across a busy intersection. After discussing among ourselves, we decided to start setting up everything on Wednesday and find a suitable spot for the banners to catch the attention of reporters and participants attending the APEC meeting.
One other problem was the complexity of the officials we had to deal with in Los Cabos. There were the local officials, federal officials, as well as officials from the APEC organization. In addition, there were the local police, federal police, presidential guards and army troops as well. Under the evil's influence, any of these groups could have possibly caused interference. Therefore, we knew that we must get rid of all the potential problems before the other practitioners arrived.
After careful investigation, we settled for two locations:
On Wednesday morning, practitioners went to San Lucas to begin their appeal under the scorching sun. As soon as we set up, reporters from over twenty media immediately swarmed towards us.
However, we encountered problems at the other location. While hanging up our banners, we noticed a Chinese special agent snooping around. Minutes later, a number of APEC security officers, including one official whom we had clarified the truth to earlier, appeared on the scene. Some reporters also came. After some negotiations, we agreed to rearrange our set up, but remained firm not to leave this vital spot. We continued to clarify the truth to Mr. G, who appeared to understand the difficult situation of living under suppression and persecution in China, and why we were doing what we were doing there.
Later, soon after we had erected the two huge banners, "Falun Dafa is Good," and "Stop Persecuting Falun Gong," an army officer came and told us to take them down. One practitioner who spoke Spanish tried to talk to him. Mr. G also showed up again. After further negotiation, they agreed that we could stay.
Subsequently, officials from different groups ordered us to take down the banners and leave the place. Mr. G talked to them one by one. We were left unscathed.
But that was not the end of our problems. Mr. G told us that Mr. A was the principal person responsible for the safety of all the visiting Heads of Government, and that he would have the final say. We realized that was our omission in our clarifying the truth. Back in Mexico City, we already knew the important role Mr. A played, and also had his phone number, but had not contacted him. We decided to immediately make an appointment to see him.
At eight o'clock that evening, we met Mr. A. After clarifying the truth to him about Falun Gong, Mr. A said that he respected our Falun Gong practitioners' action. However, for the safety of all the Heads of State, he must watch all the actions of Falun Gong practitioners closely during this period. There was a special request from China to ensure that Jiang would not be exposed to Falun Gong. That was his job and he had made up his mind; there was no room for negotiation.
From our conversation, we knew that he had received a lot of slanderous material on Falun Gong from the Chinese authorities, but also he had also heard the truth from other Mexican officials whom we had talked to. However, compared with the other Mexican officials, he had a lot of misunderstandings about Falun Gong that needed to be put straight.
We earnestly informed him that our appeal would be peaceful and would not be a security issue. When bringing up the cases of some practitioners who were tortured to death for appealing in Beijing, but later reported as suicide, I could not hold back my tears. I told him that Jiang was a cold-blooded murderer of the Chinese people, but he replied, "You are trying hard to convince me."
I realized that buried in my earnestness was a pursuit to change his mind, which I must get rid of immediately. Therefore, I felt that we should stop trying to persuade him further, but should try our best to break his warped notions with the principles of Dafa, and to let him know more about the truth. It was Dafa giving him and the people of Mexico an opportunity. So I said, "I won't try to convince you. I simply want to let you know the truth about Falun Gong, so we can understand each other better."
When he said that the President of China represented China, I told him that Jiang was not elected by the people; a murderer of his own people could not represent the nation and the people of China. His fabricated lies about Falun Gong had poisoned the minds of millions of people in China. Not only was he persecuting Falun Gong, he was persecuting all the citizens in China and he would bring disaster to the whole nation. I quoted Mr. Irwin Cotler, Member of Parliament of Canada, who said "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance represent the best of Chinese values...the values of a great civilization." (Source: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2001/8/3/12695.html)
At long last, Mr. A appeared moved. He asked repeatedly, "What can I help you with?" But we could still see that he was still holding firm to his stance.
The next day, when we went to the appeal site by the Yellow Monument, Mr. G was already there. Mr. A also arrived, but he did not insist on us moving to another place. Thus we finally secured a key location in Los Cabos for our protest appeal.
There is one point worthy of mention. The Mexican officials had told us that only citizens of Mexico were allowed to stage a protest and set up banners, whereas visitors did not have that privilege. However, on the Friday morning when the Heads of States were due to arrive, a Mexican group set up a protest banner nearby, but before long, they were told to leave. On the other hand, we Falun Gong practitioners as visitors, were the only group allowed to stage a protest. We can see the power of clarifying the truth.
(To be continued)