The mother of Johan José Martínez Rangel — one of the two Venezuelan illegal immigrants accused of sexually assaulting and murdering 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in June — was an official under Venezuela’s socialist regime, the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.
Martínez Rangel, 22, stands accused, alongside 26-year-old Franklin José Peña Ramos, of sexually assaulting and strangling Nungaray before leaving her for dead in a creek in Houston, Texas, in the early hours of June 17.
Jocelyn Nungaray (GoFundMe)
The Daily Mail reported that Venezuelans from Martínez Rangel’s home state of Guárico responded to the news of Nungaray’s death by sharing on social media that his mother, Nazareth Rangel Palacios, is a “staunch supporter” of the socialist regime that dictator Nicolás Maduro leads and served as a councilwoman for the Venezuelan government in the past.
The Mail reviewed the public electoral registry data of both Martínez Rangel and Rangel Palacios and found that both are registered at the same voting center in San Juan de Los Morros, the capital city of Guárico. Venezuela’s National Electoral Center (CNE) maintains a public registry of each voter’s name and corresponding voting center that can be freely accessed by typing a Venezuelan citizen’s identification card number on the CNE’s website.
“Rangel Palacios was a vocal militant for the ruling party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela [PSUV], and was photographed with her son in pro-government events until he left the country in about 2018,” the Mail found.
Pictures that the Daily Mail published appear to show Nazareth Rangel in the company of her son. The mother is seen sporting a red shirt with a stylized black and white silhouette of the eyes of late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez. The “eyes” are one of the main symbols of the PSUV and have been extensively utilized in propaganda, state events, murals, socialist paraphernalia, and plastered on the buildings of government institutions since 2012, when they were first used as part of Chávez’s 2012 presidential campaign.
Martínez Rangel is believed to have entered Colombia before illegally entering the United States through the southern border in March. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, Border Patrol agents apprehended Martínez Rangel at the border near El Paso, Texas, on March 14. The same day, he was released into the U.S. interior on an order of recognizance with a Notice to Appear (NTA) at a later date before a federal immigration judge.
The Daily Mail was able to reach out to Lias Brandont, who identified herself as a childhood friend of Martínez Rangel’s. Brandont reportedly confirmed the suspect’s identity but “did not want to discuss Martínez Rangel’s alleged crimes.”
“He was my friend when we were kids, and it’s very sad that he did what he did,” Brandont told the Daily Mail.
The Spanish-language network Univisión published a video and excerpts of a voice note on Monday evening shared with the news channel by an anonymous source claiming them to be of Martínez Rangel. In the video, a man appearing to be Martínez Rangel is seen snorting a substance while wearing the same clothing and accessories he is believed to have been wearing on the day of Nungaray’s death. The voice note excerpt featured Martínez Rangel bragging about being very intoxicated in Spanish, using Venezuelan slang terms. Univisión abstained from publishing the complete voice audio out of “sensitivity” concerns.
EXCLUSIVE: Video shows Johan Jose Martínez Rangel, one of the two men accused of killing Jocelyn Nungaray, snorting what appears to be cocaine.
Sources tell us this was recorded the same night he and Franklin Peña Ramos were seen with the young girl. @UniNoticias pic.twitter.com/gjRYkE2GEZ
— Lidia Terrazas (@LidiaTerrazas) July 1, 2024
Texas prosecutors stated that Martínez Rangel admitted to tying up Nungaray’s hands and feet and instructed Peña to dump her body into a creek under the bridge where she was found nude from her waist down with cuts on her backside and her hands and feet tied up.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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