A driver fired at close range at two environmental protesters who blocked the road and refused to move. Yesterday, disturbing footage showed a man with white hair and glasses casually approaching a blockade on the Pan-American Highway in Chame, Panama.
He angrily waved his finger and argued with the protesters, then pulled out a gun and fired. Some footage, too horrifying to release, shows people standing around bodies in the street.
Police said the two people who died, identified on social media as teachers, were at a barricade set up by "peaceful" protesters when the man opened fire. Police later released a photo of the suspect tied to a pipe.
The suspect was identified as Kenneth Darlington, 77, a lawyer and professor with dual U.S. and Panamanian citizenship, Newsroom Panama and Agence France-Presse reported. Darlington initially tried to dissuade the protesters but soon pulled a pistol from his pocket.
Despite the threats, the protesters remained unmoved and continued to chat with the angry driver, who became visibly angrier. He then shoots his first victim.
Startled onlookers and other protesters pushed the victim to the side of the road and forced him to lie on the ground. Another demonstrator also tried to confront the gunman but was also shot dead. Panama is in its third week of heated nationwide protests demanding the government abandon a contract to continue mining copper in the biodiversity-rich region.
Kenneth Darlington, 77, a lawyer and professor with dual U.S. and Panamanian citizenship
The agreement with environmentalists was met with protests led by teachers' unions and construction unions, who claimed that further development would jeopardize vital groundwater and forested areas just 120 kilometers west of Colon state's capital.
In March, Panamanian lawmakers reached an agreement with Canadian mining company First Quantum that will allow its local subsidiary Minera Panama to continue operating a large open-pit copper mine in central Panama for at least another 20 years, ending the year.
There is also a possibility of an extension. He can be used for another 20 years if the mine remains productive. The mine was temporarily shut down last year after talks between the government and First Quantum collapsed over the payments the government wanted.
The protests began after President Laurentino Cortizo signed the treaty after it was approved by Congress. Since the protests began, the government has come close to passing a law to terminate the contract but backed away during a late-night debate in parliament on November 2nd.
Panama's President Laurentino Cortizo expressed his condolences to the families of the dead protesters, saying the crime had "no place" in the country's supportive community.
The shooting came after Panamanian media reported last week that a demonstrator was killed when he ran over a foreigner while trying to drive over a barricade.
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