The city, coextensive with the homonymous district, is located in south-eastern Paraguay. Part of an international tripoint known as the "Triple Frontier", Ciudad del Este lies opposite the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu (state of Paraná). Separated from it by Paraná River, it is linked by the Friendship Bridge. The Argentine border is located between the neighboring town of Presidente Franco and Puerto Iguazú (Misiones Province). Ciudad del Este, along with the towns and districts of Hernandarias, Minga Guazú, and Presidente Franco, forms a metropolitan area named Gran Ciudad del Este (Greater Ciudad del Este).

After the fall of Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón in the 1950s, the government of Alfredo Stroessner took the decision to vigorously promote the so-called "March to the East", seeking to reach the Atlantic Ocean, through Brazil. The main problem encountered in the exit through the Río de la Plata was the excessively expensive freight, which made the exported products commercially uncompetitive. In 1955, the Mixed Paraguayan-Brazilian Commission was set up to boost the highway to the East, and in 1956 a reconnaissance flight was made on Alto Paraná. The construction of a road route to the Paraná River bank was led by Captain Porfirio Pereira Ruiz Díaz, who supervised several army units in the building of a 200-kilometre section from Coronel Oviedo.

When someday comes you'll need to get in.

When someday comes you'll need to be able to get around.