The city was founded to facilitate the transport of goods past the Atures Rapids on the Orinoco River in the late 19th century (mostly rubber).

Also based here is the Venezuelan army and navy, conducting a continuous low level campaign against incursions and drug-runners from nearby Colombia.

It thus replaced San Fernando de Atabapo, which had been the administrative center of this former district, then province, later federal territory and finally state.

Located on a huge black granite rock, facing the Colombian shore, the city is today the most important town in Amazonas and a river port that brings together the economic activity of the area.

The oldest known map of Puerto Ayacucho was drawn by Ramón Ojeda Briceño, Bachelor of Pharmacy, in 1940.There were 120 houses and between 600 and 700 inhabitants, most of them with palm roofs, dirt floors and wattle and daub walls.

This was first visited by Europeans in the 17th century and explored in 1800 by naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who commented on the recent extinction of the Aturès Indians for whom the Atures Rapids had been named.

The surrounding rainforest contains some facilities for tourists, including an airstrip, and the area also has a large population of greenwing macaws, Ara chloroptera.