EL SALVADOR:Hundreds of El Salvador's judges, lawyers and magistrates, some brandishing copies of the constitution, have protested against plans to allow state prosecutors to decide criminal cases.
Some 400 judges and judicial workers demonstrated on Wednesday in the centre of San Salvador holding banners saying "No to Impunity!" and "Down with the penal code reforms", while playing dramatic opera music through loudspeakers.
The judges are angry at a move by the state attorney general's office to prosecute four judges for the way they interpreted El Salvador's laws in several cases.
They want the government of President Tony Saca to drop plans to reform the penal code to allow state prosecutors instead of judges to determine criminal cases.
El Salvador's chaotic court system is plagued by long delays and hundreds of unsolved murder cases, while the country has badly overcrowded prisons with more than 13,000 inmates in a system built to hold fewer than 6,000.
Judges and government officials accuse each other of corruption and failing to stop police graft or disband the violent youth gangs that terrorise the country.
"The justice ministry, the police and the attorney general's office want to wash their hands of their mistakes. They have shown themselves incapable of dealing with crime and insecurity in the country," said Jose Maria Mendez, a lawyer representing one of the judges being prosecuted by the state.