PANAMA CITY, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Thousands of unionized workers faced off with riot police for a second day on Thursday, blocking streets and occupying buildings in Panama City to protest against the firing of the head of Panama's social security fund. As staff at the ailing fund called a two-day nationwide strike, protesting public and private sector workers took over construction sites across the city and a social security building, throwing homemade gasoline bombs and rocks at police carrying riot shields and batons. "We're protesting because our social security fund is being hijacked for political ends," said a textile worker throwing rocks at police outside a half-built shopping center on the city's bay front. Police tried to push back the crowds to reopen several of of the capital's main streets, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, but by early afternoon were unable disperse the protesters, witnesses said. Juan Jovane, the dismissed social security fund director, accused the government of weakening the fund by trying to use it to issue $500 million in debt for political campaigning for the upcoming May 2004 elections. The government recently dismissed Jovane, saying he was running the fund incompetently. More than 20 people have so far been injured in the clashes, witnesses said, and dozens of protesters have been arrested, including union leaders. Police declined to give an exact figure for the arrests. The social security fund is Panama's most emotive political issue for the poor, who see it as a pillar of justice in a country where 40 percent of the 2.8 million population lives in poverty, despite an economy backed by the Panama Canal. Unless the fund is restructured, the system will be bankrupt by 2014, according to Deutsche Bank.
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