Traffic in central Ciudad del Este was severely congested again on Friday, with queues stretching for several kilometers and waits of up to three hours to cross the Friendship Bridge into Brazil. Congestion affected main avenues such as the PY02 and Monseñor Rodríguez, leaving drivers facing severe delays.
According to Leonardo Roa, director of the city's Municipal Traffic Police (PMT), customs inspections carried out jointly by Paraguayan Customs and, primarily, Brazil's Federal Revenue Service contributed to the congestion. “We practically suffer the consequences on this side of the country, because the controls are much stricter,” Roa said, noting that the Brazilian authority was allowing only one inbound lane.
The director lamented that the public holds the municipality responsible for a situation over which it has no decision-making power. “We do not have international relations to decide how they will operate. We solely organize the traffic on this side,” he emphasized. He also said driver impatience and lack of tolerance at intersections worsen the problem, requiring officers to intervene to clear traffic.
Beyond the inspections, Roa acknowledged a structural problem: Ciudad del Este's commercial and tourist growth has surpassed the road capacity planned decades ago. “The microcenter was planned many years ago and surely no one imagined this would be a boom. The avenues and streets are short for the volume of vehicles they support today,” he explained. He said a larger shopping mall is expected to open in a few years.
Roa said the situation would likely recur while Receita Federal inspection operations continue. The PMT continues to manage traffic around the bridge access points, but, according to Roa, the situation involves Brazilian inspections and limitations in the road infrastructure.