We define notion of a quaternionic and para-quaternionic CR structure on a (4n+3)-dimensional manifold M as a triple (ω1,ω2,ω3) of 1-forms such that the corresponding 2-forms satisfy some algebraic relations. We associate with such a structure an Einstein metric on M and establish relations between quaternionic CR structures, contact pseudo-metric 3-structures and pseudo-Sasakian 3-structures. Homogeneous examples of (para)-quaternionic CR manifolds are given and a reduction construction of non...