José Vicente Rangel (b. 10 July 1929 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician. As of 2004 he is the country's vice president, a position he has held since he was named as Diosdado Cabello's replacement on 28 April 2002.

His political activism began with his active opposition of the military coup d'état that overthrew President Rómulo Gallegos in 1948. He was arrested by the military authorities and expelled from Venezuela. He took refuge in Chile, where he met and married the sculptor Ana Avalos .

He returned to Venezuela following the downfall of the dictatorship in 1958 and ran for, and was elected to, Congress that same year, representing the Democratic Republican Union (Unión Republicana Democrática, URD). In addition to his political activities, he exercised the legal profession, for which he had studied, and worked as a journalist. He also made presidential bids on three occasions: in 1973, 1978, and 1983.

President Hugo Chávez chose Rangel to serve as his minister of foreign affairs when he took office in 1999, and he served in this position until February 2001, when Chávez selected him to be his minister of defence, a position that he held until assuming the vice-presidency in May 2002.

Rangel is the author of Expediente Negro , an investigation of human rights violations in Venezuela in the 1960s and '70s.