On the Street
Ciudad del Este, Paraguay 1998
James Patton
Ciudad del Este is a difficult place to capture in words, perhaps even
more difficult in images. Like any other border city wedged between two
nations burdened by some degree of corruption, Ciudad del Este is a warren
for black and grey-marketeers, with all of the idiosyncrasies that accompany
them. In sharp contrast to the idyllic red-clay countryside that starts
10 miles outside of the city and runs the length of the country to the
capital, Asuncion, Ciudad del Este traditionally swarms with people buying
goods to carry through the litter-strewn streets and illegally across
the “Friendship Bridge” into Brazil. Recent changes in Brazilian
economics and a linking of Ciudad del Este with Al Qaeda terrorist cells
have turned the city into a relative ghost town, however.
© 2002 The
Fletcher School, Tufts University