Rangel, a freelance journalist who worked for the newspaper Sur 30 Días and local radio stations in El Banco, Magdalena Department, was shot four times in the head while watching a late-night boxing match on television.
Local sources told CPJ that the journalist regularly denounced administrative corruption in the office of Mayor Fidias Zeider Ospino Fernández. Just prior to his death, the journalist had organized a community protest against the mayor. Local reporters seemed wary of volunteering any information in a climate that has become increasingly dangerous, making it difficult for CPJ to confirm when and where Rangel had published his articles. Rangel was attacked in 1996 while covering community affairs for a local radio station, according to local journalists.