Merchants from Taiwan and Lebanon founded flourishing import firms. With their wealth, they built mosques, Buddhist temples and malls with names like Shopping Lai Lai. To lure shoppers back, authorities say they will halt crime and transform the city into a little Las Vegas, with casinos and a lively night life. Ciudad del Este will reinvent itself as a tourist town, says Charif Hammoud, president of the Upper Parana River Importers' Association. The government plans maquiladoras here to supply neighbors with low-cost industrial goods.
Labor is inexpensive, and energy, supplied by hydroelectric dams, is the cheapest in the hemisphere.
But nothing concrete has been done. Meanwhile, the drug trade is making inroads. The drug trade has contributed to crime, though many in Ciudad del Este say the deployment of troops is a heavy-handed tactic recalling the decades of military rule. Brazilian smugglers on a shoe-string budget buy most of these goods. There's just not very much control.