Kenneth Darlington U.S lawyer arrested in shooting deaths of two environmental protesters along Pan-American Highway in Panama protesting Canada copper mine. Lawyer is accused of shooting the victims premeditatedly.
A motorist has been arrested after he was captured on camera walking up to environmental protesters blocking a Panamanian highway Tuesday and shooting them both to death.
Footage captured Kenneth Darlington, 77, a retired American lawyer casually approaching the blockade on the Pan-American Highway and waving his finger while arguing with the demonstrators — before pulling out a gun and opening fire.
Other footage showed people standing around bodies in the road in the Chame sector west of Panama City as well as the gunman being arrested and led to a squad car.
An #American lawyer shot and killed two environmental activists when they blocked a highway in #Panama. 77-year-old Kenneth Darlington initially argued with the protesters, but then pulled out a gun and opened fire. The result turned out to be fatal: shooter himself was arrested pic.twitter.com/JOtrGYHi2f
— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) November 9, 2023
Were the shootings premeditated?
Darlington along with being a lawyer was also identified as being a and professor who holds dual citizenship in the US and Panama, according to Newsroom Panama and Agence France-Presse.
One of the shot protesters died at the scene while the second was pronounced dead at a local hospital, AFP said. The victims were identified as Abdiel Díaz and Iván Rodrigo Mendoza.
Eliecer Plicett, lawyer for gunned down victim, Mendoza alleged that the two homicides were ‘premeditated.’
Plicett alleged that Darlington knew that the street would be blocked at some point and came to the protest to cause the harm that he did. Plicett indicated that the video supports the allegation as Darlington appeared to have allegedly had the automatic handgun in his pocket ready to use.
Darlington, who lived in the exclusive Paitilla district of Panama City, got stuck in traffic caused by the protesters who had set up a road block on the highway, about 55 miles west of Panama City, the country’s capital.
He reportedly told other passengers in the car as he got out: ‘This ends today.’
Prior guns arrest and shady association
Video and pictures show how he stormed up the road from his car to the road block and starts arguing with the group, mostly made up of teachers.
He then takes a handgun out of his pocket and then begins clearing the barricade on the motorway, still arguing with protesters.
Local media reported that Darlington asked several teachers who the leaders of the demonstration were. The protesting teachers told him that there were no leaders, so he replied: ‘I don’t want to talk to women. I want to talk to men.’
Of note, Kenneth Darlington was arrested in 2005 after weapons – including an AK-47 and M-16 – were found in his Panama City apartment, but was acquitted after a court accepted his plea that the weapons were part of a collection.
He was also employed as a spokesman for Marc Harris, a Panamanian accountant who was jailed for 17 years in 2004 after being convicted of money laundering and tax evasion.
The violence came during the third week of protests over a large mining contract that allows Canada-based First Quantum Minerals to operate the region’s largest pit copper mine for at least 20 more years.
https://youtu.be/OzhdCrpSQlA?si=VpjA2h0NHVb_S4Sz
Canada mining contract free for all
The roadblocks have caused up to $80 million in daily losses to businesses and have shuttered schools nationwide for more than a week. At stake is Panama’s environment and locals claims that the mine would intrude on ancestral land along with the ‘expulsion’ of communities from the area.
The passing of the mining contract comes despite Panama’s highest court in 2017 ruled that First Quantum’s mining contract was unconstitutional.
Protesters have been demanding the annulment of the contract and the definitive closure of the mine, or failing that, its nationalization, Canada’s National Observer reported.
Reacting to the incident, Saul Mendez, leader of Suntracs, the most visible protester group, said that the two murders were part of a ‘campaign of hate, lies and deception’ against the efforts of the protesters to repeal law 406 and revoke the mining contract between a Canadian subsidiary and the Panamanian Government.
Notwithstanding the alleged campaign of hate, Mendez said that the protesters will not stop demonstrating in the streets until law 406 is repealed.
Panama President Laurentino Cortizo sent his condolences to the dead protesters’ families, saying that such a crime ‘has no place’ in his nation’s supportive society.
The deadly shooting came after Panamanian media reported that a demonstrator was run over and killed last week by a foreigner attempting to drive past a roadblock.
The 19,000-mile Pan-American Highway is the world’s largest route, spanning from Alaska to Argentina with a break in the Darién Gap.
