Introduction
HISTORY AND REGIONAL CONTEXT History of Ciudad del Este Located on the eastern edge of Paraguay, where the borders of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet at what is known as the ‘Triple Frontier,’ Ciudad del Este serves as Paraguay’s gateway to connect the country to international trade, employment, and culture. Ciudad del Este is located on land that was once the home of the Ava Guaraní, Mbya Guaraní, and the Caygua people for many years. In the late 1880s, pioneer Paraguayan communities began migrating throughout the country, further developing the region.
14
Ciudad del Este, a relatively young city, was established in 1957 as a frontier town after President Alfredo Stroessner came to power in 1954. Ciudad del Este and the region had extensive infrastructure developments in the 1960s and 1970s with the construction of Ruta 7 (now Ruta 2), which connected the city to both the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Asunción to the west, as well as the construction of the Puente de la Amistad and the Itaipu Dam. With these new major infrastructure projects, the city began growing to accommodate construction workers and engineers. This connective infrastructure allowed for trade across the tri-border
