By Marcela Sanchez
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 14, 2008; 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON -- Jesus Antonio Soriano had long wanted to give something back to his native Chalatenango, a province in northern El Salvador devastated by civil war in the 1980s. And so four years ago, the agronomist, with three partners, developed a plan to improve land values and create jobs by building a residential and recreational center. The Chalate Country Club now employs 60 people full-time and pays them at least twice what most jobs in the area would bring.
Initially, investment was slow in coming to Soriano's development. Then two years ago, he began offering the $16,500, 400-square-yard lots to Salvadorans living abroad. Almost at the same time, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, President Bush's "smart aid" program, launched its $461 million, five-year initiative in education and basic infrastructure for northern El Salvador.
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