MANAGUA – Nicaraguan magistrate Silvia Isabel Rosales has been chosen as the new president of the Managua-based Central American Court of Justice (CACJ) for the 2009-2010 period, as the court's rotating presidency remains temporarily in this Central American country.

Court spokeswoman Ana Isabel Solís said Ricardo Acevedo, of El Salvador, was elected vice president.

Rosales, 50, has been a magistrate with the CCJ (the court's initials in Spanish) since 2006, having cut her teeth in criminal law at a Managua appeals court.

Rosales will take the reins from Honduran Francisco Darío Lobo.

The CACJ's history dates back to a 1907 Washington, D.C., peace conference between Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, and was resurrected through the Central American Integration System in 1991, with two magistrates from El Salvador, two from Honduras and two Nicaraguans. Two Guatemalan judges are soon expected to join.

Belize, Costa Rica and Panama, however, have not ratified the Tegucigalpa Protocol in order to gain membership.