Dear Friends,

I just got back from Central America. While I was in Costa Rica, my little
brother Higinio became a Bishop. It was a truly lovely ceremony. I also
accompanied a youth delegation from Connecticut. They spent a week
visiting the communities in El Salvador, volunteering on projects, and
discussing what they saw and learned in the context of their Jewish
faith. They're a great group of people and it was a real pleasure for us
to host them.

CAFTA, as you know, is in the news these days. The US Senate already
approve this so-called Central America "Free Trade" Agreement and the House
will consider it soon. Our friends around Central America have asked us to
let you know how much CAFTA will hurt them and to help them defeat
it. CAFTA was designed by and for multinational corporations; although
many politicians will tell you that it will help workers and the poor, its
real intention is to help the rich get richer. It also constitutes a major
threat to our sovereignty: as an international trade agreement, it would
trump the Constitution, giving international corporations and trade
organizations power over our local and national governments. It scares me
to think a company like Enron could have more rights than me, or that our
government would be powerless to stop its abuses.

To learn more about CAFTA, and contact your Representative, click here:
http://www.stopcafta.org/article.php?list=type&type=21


MARCH ROMERO DELEGATION
Want to know how the March Romero delegation went? Tom Karlin has shared
his thoughts and photos with us here, including his comments on CAFTA:
http://fssca.net/photos/05romero/

RABBIS IN EL SALVADOR
In January, a delightful group of rabbis joined us in El Salvador. One of
them, Justus Baird, shares his impressions and photos in this article.
http://www.jnb.org/ud-salv.htm

TECH SOUP ARTICLE
The Romero Memorial Tree Project has passed 5,100 trees! It continues to
attract attention and support from a wide variety of areas. Tech Soup has
recently published an article about the project here:
http://www.techsoup.org/howto/npostory_article.cfm?articleid=86&topicid=0


Saludos,

Jose "Chencho" Alas
chencho@...


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