The VIII Central American Games (Spanish: VIII Juegos Deportivos Centroamericanos) was a multi-sport event that took place between 3 and 12 March 2006. The games were initially scheduled between 9 and 18 December 2005 in Guatemala with support of El Salvador. However, the damages caused by Hurricane Stan in October 2005 led to the resignment of the designated hosts. Therefore, a minor and descentralized version of the games was organized with venuesdistributed in all participating five countries with local opening ceremonies being the main took place inManagua. The games were opened by ORDECA president who was participating at Panama event.