 In honour of the peace treaty between Ecuador and Peru soon to be signed on October 26, 1998, officially ending the recent Cenepa War, the athlete's oath was sworn jointly by Ecuadorian cyclist Francisco Encalada and Peruvian table tennis player Eliana González.The games were initially scheduled for May 1998, but were postponed mainly because of severe flooding caused by the El Niño climate phenomenon which resulted in more than 300 deaths.For the first time, Guyana participated at the games.