MIAMI ā Scott Smith, a correspondent for The Associated Press who traveled across Venezuela to document personal stories of desperation and hope in the troubled country, has died. He was 50.
Smith was diagnosed in February with brain cancer and was evacuated from the capital, Caracas, in a rare show of cooperation between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments amid the coronavirus pandemic and a strict American ban on all flights to the country in place since 2019.
Recommended Videos
He died Thursday at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, his family said.
Smith arrived in Caracas in 2017 amid a wave of deadly anti-government unrest spurred in part by growing pressure from the Trump administration, which was seeking to force President NicolƔs Maduro from power.
Smithās easygoing demeanor, boundless curiosity and immense pride at being a foreign correspondent won him the trust and respect of government supporters and opponents alike.
āEven while sick, he was asking when he could go back to Caracas or what his onward assignment might be elsewhere in the world once better,āā said Ian Phillips, APās head of international news.
Smith looked through the polarizing rhetoric of Venezuelaās political crisis and gave voice to all he encountered: oil-covered fishermen eking out a hellacious existence in a polluted lake, street gangsters hurt by the rising price of bullets or the families of victims of a fire at an overcrowded prison.
He also eschewed facile explanations for the nationās woes.
āHe used to joke that a small-town kid who showed steers at the county fair wasnāt supposed to be a foreign correspondent writing the first draft of history,ā said Kelly Scott, his sister. āHe never took himself too seriously.ā
For all the humor, he took on challenging assignments with an understated bravery.
A story on COVID patients at a hospital mirroring the nationās ruinous health care system required putting his own wellbeing on the line way before there was a vaccine, and with few means of leaving Venezuela if he had gotten sick.
His last AP article revealed the previously unknown saga of Carlos MarrĆ³n, an exiled businessman lured back home by his fatherās kidnapping only to end up beaten and asphyxiated in one of Maduroās jails. His alleged crime: running a website that published the black-market exchange rate.
Smith joined the AP in 2014, reporting from Fresno, California, not far from where he grew up. He documented Californiaās battle with drought and its impacts on farmers and poor communities that struggled as hundreds of wells ran dry.
Prior to the AP, Smith spent more than a decade at The Record newspaper in Stockton, California. His reporting on the so-called āSpeed Freakā serial killings led authorities to unearth five victims, including the remains of three women.
He volunteered for the Peace Corps after graduating from California State University, Chico, where he earned a masterās degree in literature. He was sent to Uzbekistan, then emerging from Soviet rule, where he taught English. Later he ran a non-profit training Uzbek journalists on how to gather news free of government censors.
A common love of music ā he played trumpet in several bands ā endeared him to Hugo MĆ©ndez, a taxi driver the AP hired to pick Smith up at the airport upon his arrival in Caracas. MĆ©ndez was listening to jazz and Smith took note.
āMiles Davis?ā was about all MĆ©ndez could understand of Smithās then-rusty Spanish. Despite the language barrier, within a few hours the two were eating pork rinds and greasy soup at a food stall in one of Caracasā toughest neighborhoods ā Smith betraying none of the nervousness he surely felt in what was then dubbed the worldās most violent city. Over time, he'd develop a deep affection for his new home.
āI thought to myself, this gringo is crazy,ā remembers MĆ©ndez. āI knew right away we were going to be buddies, but I never thought heād end up becoming my brother.ā
Smith is survived by his parents, Scott and Lorene Smith, sisters Kelly Scott and Kristy Bean and their spouses, as well as two nephews and a niece.
___
Goodman was the APās Andean News Director from 2014 to 2019.