'This ends today': Retired US lawyer stuck behind environmentalist blockade guns down two Panamanian protesters

Western environmentalists and climate alarmists have gone to great lengths to protest job-creating mineral extraction and the use of affordable energy in recent years, gluing themselves to airport runways, vandalizing priceless works of art, and ruining their own celebrations. One of their go-to tactics has been illegal road blockades.

Blockaders usually face little consequence for holding up traffic, even when emergency vehicles need to get by. On occasion, they have been met with criticism, buckets of water, and fisticuffs. On Tuesday, a pair of Panamanian eco-alarmists were met with bullets.

A 77-year-old Panamanian-born U.S. citizen got stuck behind a blockade roughly 55 miles west of Panama City. After a failed attempt to clear the barricade, he gunned down a pair of ostensibly unarmed protesters. As a TV news crew was just a stone's throw away, the whole incident was caught on tape.

Minera Panamá S.A., a subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals, recently secured a contract from the Panamanian government to operate a copper mine in a jungle west of Panama City at a time when copper, needed for the manufacture of electric vehicles, is in high demand, reported the Times.

A powerful construction union and various teachers' unions have worked in recent weeks to paralyze the country with roadblocks in hopes of pressuring the government into reversing Law 406 and breaking the contract, even though the mining company is poised to create thousands of jobs and inject $375 million annually into the local economy. Their illegal roadblocks have reportedly caused more than $80 million in daily losses to local businesses; prevented farmers from bringing food to market; shut down schools nationwide; and all but locked down the country.

A group of educators shut down a stretch of the Pan-American Highway in the Chame district on Tuesday as part of the third week of the pressure campaign. Kenneth Darlington, a retired lawyer and university professor, was among those who got stuck behind the blockade.

According to prosecutors, Darlington told his passengers, "This ends today," before getting out of his car and ambling toward the protesters, reported TVN Noticias.

Darlington allegedly asked the teacher-protesters who was in charge and was told there were no leaders.

"I don't want to talk to women," Darlington is alleged to have said. "I want to talk to men."

Three men eventually confronted Darlington, but it appears he was running short on things to say.

Darlington can be seen in footage of the incident drawing a handgun, waving it around, and ordering the blockaders to clear out. He then begins pulling tires and other elements of the makeshift barricade off the road.

One demonstrator can be heard in footage of the incident saying, "Why don't you shoot?" reported the Daily Mail.

Another protester yelled, "Are you going to kill someone?" to which Darlington reportedly replied, "Do you want to be the first?"

After some more fruitless arguing, Darlington can be seen opening fire. His first victim crumpled to the ground immediately. The second victim, hit in the upper chest, staggered off to the side of the road.

Abdiel Díaz Chavez died at the scene. The second victim, identified as 62-year-old Iván Rodríguez Mendoza, was taken to a nearby clinic, where he later died.

TVN Noticias reported that witnesses heard Darlington say, "This is the end of the problem," after the shootings.

Undeterred by the anguished cries and bloodshed, Darlington continued clearing the road until police arrested him without incident.

The Panamanian Attorney General's Office indicated that the retired lawyer has been charged with aggravated homicide and illicit possession of a firearm. In a statement Wednesday, the AGO stressed the importance of respect and tolerance when it comes to encounters with those exercising their right to protest.

Panama President Laurentino Cortizo wrote on X, "I express my condolences to the families of the two citizens who lost their lives in an incident that occurred this Tuesday in a sector of Panama Oeste. This is a fact that has no place in a society called to be supportive like ours."

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