José Vicente Rangel Vale (10 July 1929 – 18 December 2020) was a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n politician and journalist. He ran for president three times in the 1970s and 1980s and later supported Hugo Chávez. He served under Chávez as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

from 1999 to 2001, as Minister of Defense from 2001 to 2002, and as the

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

from 2002 to 2007.

Political activism

Born in Caracas, he returned to Venezuela following the downfall of the dictatorship of

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Army of Venezuela and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 19 ...

in 1958 and was elected to the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

that same year, representing the Democratic Republican Union (''Unión Republicana Democrática,'' URD). In addition to his political activities, he worked as a lawyer and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. He also made presidential bids on three occasions: in the 1973 presidential election and 1978 presidential election as candidate of ''MAS – Movimiento al Socialismo'' ( Movement for Socialism), and in the 1983 presidential election as candidate of ''MEP – Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo''.

Journalist

In 1990, Rangel re-entered journalism, contributing to a range of newspapers as a columnist (including '' El Universal'', ''Panorama'', ''El Informador'', ''La Tarde'', ''El Regional'', ''2001''). In the 1960s he was editor of the weekly ''Qué Pasa en Venezuela'' (1960–67) and of the dailies '' La Razón'' and '' Clarín''. Rangel played a role in the 1993 impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, being the first to publish (in November 1992) the corruption allegations which would ultimately be endorsed by the Supreme Court. On 20 May 1993, the Supreme Court considered the accusation valid, and the National Congress removed Pérez from office. He was imprisoned and sentenced to two years of prison on May, 1994 for malversation of funds of the so-called secret fund.Pérez second period review at venezuelavirtual.com
For many years he has held a political opinion show on

Televen Televen is a private Venezuelan national television network headquartered on the Caracas neighborhood of Horizonte. For this reason it is also called 'Canal de Horizonte'. Televen was inaugurated as the ''TELEVEN Corporation'' (''Corporación TE ...

called "José Vicente Hoy".

Political career

Hugo Chávez chose Rangel to serve as his Minister of Foreign Affairs when he took office as president in February 1999. Rangel served in that position until early February 2001, when Chávez instead appointed him as Minister of Defence, replacing General Ismael Hurtado. Rangel was the first civilian to serve as Defense Minister in decades. After a little more than a year as Minister of Defense, Rangel became vice-president in May 2002, replacing

Diosdado Cabello Diosdado Cabello Rondón (born 15 April 1963Vicepresidencia de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela also drug lord of Venezuela , atentamente alcardonDiosdado Cabello Rondón, accessed 19 April 2010) is a Venezuelan politician and current mem ...

. On 3 January 2007, Chávez announced that Rangel would be replaced as vice president by Jorge Rodríguez. Chávez said that the decision was "not easy", and that he regarded Rangel "with the same respect and affection as a son would a father", but did not explain the reasoning behind the decision. At the swearing in ceremony for the new cabinet on 8 January, Rangel said that he was leaving the government, but not the revolution. He and Rodríguez exchanged praise, with the latter saying that Rangel was the first person he had ever voted for, in the 1983 election.

Personal life and death

Rangel was the author of '' Expediente Negro'', an investigation of

human rights violation Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

s in Venezuela in the 1960s and 1970s. His son, José Vicente Rangel Ávalos, has also been involved in Venezuelan politics, having been mayor of the Sucre District in Caracas. Rangel died of cardiac arrest on 18 December 2020. He was 91 years old.Muere periodista y exvicepresidente de Venezuela José Vicente Rangel
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Books

* '' Expediente Negro'', Caracas: Editorial Fuentes, 1972 * ''Tiempo de Verdades'', Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 1973 – a selection of Rangel's press contributions * Rangel ''et al.'', ''Militares y política (una polėmica inconclusa)'', Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 1976 * ''Seguridad, defensa, democracia: Un tema para cíviles y militares'', Caracas: Ediciones Centauro, 1980 * ''Socialismo y Democracia'' * ''La Administración de Justicia en Venezuela''

References