An elderly American was arrested after a gunman was caught on camera walking up to environmental protesters blocking a Panama highway on Tuesday and blasting two of them to death.
Disturbing footage shows a gray-haired, bespectacled man casually approaching a roadblock on the Pan-American Expressway and waving his finger while arguing with protesters — before pulling out a gun and opening fire.
Other footage showed people standing around the body on the road in the Chame sector west of Panama City as the gunman was handcuffed and taken to a squad car.
Police later shared a photo of the suspect handcuffed to a pipe as he was identified as Kenneth Darlington, 77, a lawyer and professor who holds dual citizenship in the US and Panama, according to the Panama Newsroom and Agence France-Presse.
One of the protesters was shot dead on the spot while the second was pronounced dead at a local hospital, AFP said.
The violence comes in the third week of protests against a major mining contract that allows Canada-based First Quantum Minerals to operate the region’s largest open-pit copper mine for at least another 20 years.
Road blockades have caused daily losses of up to $80 million to businesses and have closed schools across the country for more than a week.
A La Policía Nacional como que le han gave instructions to delete the publication of Chame’s killer, Kenneth Darlintong.
¿Hay tanto poder detrás de este sujeto?¿A qué o quienes le tienen miedo? pic.twitter.com/F8kmtvtssH
— Davis Álvarez ?? (@davisclick) November 7, 2023
President of Panama Laurentino Cortizo convey condolences to the families of the dead protesters, saying that such crimes “have no place” in a society that supports his country.
The fatal shooting came after Panamanian media reported that a protester had been run over and killed last week by a foreigner trying to drive past a roadblock.
The 19,000-mile Pan-American Highway is the world’s largest route, stretching from Alaska to Argentina with a break in the Darién Gorge.
With Postal wires
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
