The editor of El Espectador from 1952 until 1986, he was assassinated in Bogotá in what was widely seen as an attack related to his criticism of Colombia's drug barons.

The hitmen quickly fled the scene and he was rushed to a hospital where he died shortly before 7 pm .

[3] It was assumed that the attack was in response to a campaign Cano had launched in the paper years earlier to denounce the influence of drug traffickers in the country's politics.

In an October 1995 ruling, four individuals (María Ofelia Saldarriaga, Pablo Enrique Zamora, Carlos Martínez Hernández, and Luis Carlos Molina Yepes) were found guilty of conspiring to commit his murder and sentenced to prison terms of 16 years, 8 months.

[4] Cano is portrayed by the Colombian actor Germán Quintero in the TV series Escobar, el patrón del mal.