The institution is named in honour of a local healer, Raimundo dos Santos Souza, or ‘Sacaca’, who carried out important work in natural medicine for the state’s population.

Built with the purpose of defending the Amazon, especially from the prospect of a French invasion (the French had already occupied the territory of Guyana), it occupies a vast area on the left bank of the mouth of the Amazon River in the capital of Amapá.