A The Tri-Border Area of Parana and COVID-19: A Tale Of Two Bridges in the South American Hinterland

Abstract

During the COVID-19 lockdown, at night on the stretch of the Parana River that goes from the Ponte Internacional da Amizade (International Friendship Bridge) south to the geographic trifinium, where the river splits and three borders meet, the sound of outboard motors and gunfire has intensified. Seven-and-a-half miles (twelve kilometres) of border space separate Brazil from Paraguay in South America’s hinterland. Since 1965, the main transversal gates of a long-shared border of 848 miles (1,364 kilometres) are located on both sides of the Amizade Bridge. In 2020, during the pandemic, work on a second bridge, started the previous year, was intensified. This essay focuses on the study of the border space between both infrastructures: the old and the new.