Uruguaiana is a municipality in the Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian state of Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...

. It is located on the left-hand (eastern) shore of the Uruguay River

Uruguay River

The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...

 that forms the border with Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Opposite Uruguaiana, and joined to it by a road/railway bridge, lies the Argentine city of Paso de los Libres

Paso de los Libres

Paso de los Libres is a city in the east of the province of Corrientes in the Argentine Mesopotamia. It has about 44,000 inhabitants as of the , and is the head town of the department of the same name....

, Corrientes

Corrientes Province

Corrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...

. North of Uruguaiana lies the Brazilian town of Itaqui

Itaqui

Itaqui is a municipality in Brazil, located in the southwestern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, close to the Argentinian border, between Uruguaiana and São Borja. It sits at a mean altitude of 57 meters , by the Uruguay River. Its population is currently estimated at 42,000.- History :The...

, connected by a bridge constructed by the English in 1888 over the Ibicuí River

Ibicuí River

The Ibicuí River is a river in Rio Grande do Sul state of southern Brazil. The Ibicuí is 290 km in length, and is the main tributary of the Uruguay River. It is formed by the confluence of the Ibicuí-Mirim River and Santa Maria River at the city of Cacequi...

.
http://encarta.msn.com/map_701606084/Rio_Ibicui.html The city marks the southernmost point reached by the Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

ans in the War of the Triple Alliance

War of the Triple Alliance

The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...

; after being taken without resistance, it was recaptured after a six-week siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

 that effectively ended the phase of Paraguayan offensive operations.

Communications and distances

The major highways connecting Uruguaiana with other cities in Rio Grande do Sul are BR 472, to Barra do Guaraí in the south and São Borja in the north, BR 290, to Alegrete and Porto Alegre in the east.

The city is served by Ruben Berta International Airport

Ruben Berta International Airport

Ruben Berta International Airport is the airport serving Uruguaiana, Brazil. It is named after Ruben Martin Berta , the 3rd Manager-Director of Varig...

, one of the largest airports in the interior of the state. It had a traffic of over 3,000 passengers in 2008 with 1,409 planes using the facilities.

Some of the distances between Uruguaina and other cities in the state are:

• Porto Alegre: 649 km.
• Santa Maria: 365 km.
• Pelotas: 649 km.
• Rio Grande: 701 km.
• Bagé: 454 km.
• Chuí: 904 km.
• Passo Fundo: 562 km.

Economy

The economy is mainly based on services, followed by industry and agriculture in that order. The sectors employing the most workers were industry, 1,187 workers; commerce, 7,662 workers; public administration, 2,248 workers; transport, communications and storage, 3,303 workers; education, 573 workers; and health, 774 workers.

In 2006 there were 829 agricultural establishments, employing around 3,400 workers. There were 207,000 head of cattle. The main crops were soybeans (633 hectares), wheat (320 hectares), and rice (58,000 hectares).

Health

Health care for the population is mainly provided by public facilities. In 2005 there were 49 health establishments, of which 25 were public facilities. The Municipal Secretariat of Health and the Environment had 16 health centers, including the Health Center of Uruguaina and the Municipal Emergency Care operated by 235 workers.

Uruguaiana had two hospitals, both linked to the national health service. They had 268 beds (2005), with 176 public and 92 private.

Education

The municipal school network was made up of 27 schools, 10 urban and 17 rural, with 567 teachers who administered to 6,222 students in the urban area and 485 in the rural area. In the rural schools there were 30 teachers. The total number of schools both public and private was 110 in 2005. There were 52 primary schools, 4 middle schools, and 44 pre-primary schools in 2007

Uruguaiana had a university campus with schools of Animal Science, Veterinarian Science, Agronomy, Philosophy, Letters, Accounting, Business Administration, Computer Science, and Law. Enrollment in 2005 was 1,850 students.

Remarkable construction works

First Oil Refinery in Brazil

The city prides itself on being a pioneer in oil refining in Brazil. In 1932, the Riograndense Oil Refinery was envisioned and built by local traders, which boosted Uruguaiana to international notoriety because of the economic, military and social importance the refinery had at the time.

The refinery became the cradle of present-day Grupo Ipiranga, one of Brazil's largest oil refining and distribution corporations, with business throughout Brazil, especially in the country's South and Southeast regions.

International bridge

Later, on May 21, 1947, the International Getúlio Vargas/Agustín P. Just Road/Railway Bridge

Paso de los Libres-Uruguaiana International Bridge

The Paso de los Libres-Uruguaiana International Bridge is a road and railroad bridge that joins Argentina and Brazil over the Uruguay River, running between Paso de los Libres, Corrientes Province, Argentina, and Uruguaiana, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It measures in length....

 on the Uruguay River was inaugurated by presidents Eurico Gaspar Dutra

Eurico Gaspar Dutra

Eurico Gaspar Dutra , was a Brazilian marshal, politician and president of Brazil from 1946–1951.He was born in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, and like many other Brazilians, was from Azorean-Portuguese origin...

 of Brazil and Juan Domingo Perón of Argentina, linking Uruguaiana to the Argentine city of Paso de los Libres. At the time of its construction, the bridge was the greatest work of engineering of Latin America.

Since 1987 there is a high-voltage direct current

High-voltage direct current

A high-voltage, direct current electric power transmission system uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical power, in contrast with the more common alternating current systems. For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses...

 (HVDC) back-to-back station for power

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 exchange with Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 at Uruguaiana. This facility, which was built by Toshiba

Toshiba

is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...

, can transfer a maximum power of 53.9 megawatts. The applied DC

Direct current

Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...

 voltage

Voltage

Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...

 is 17.9 kV.

The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Uruguaiana.