Scott Smith, AP reporter in Venezuela, dies at 50

By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — 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 flown by medevac from Venezuela in a rare show of cooperation in normally hostile relations between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments. Smith arrived in Caracas in 2017 amid a wave of deadly anti-government unrest spurred in part by growing pressure from the Trump administration. He joined the AP in Fresno, California, not far from where he was raised. Before that he worked for the The Record newspaper in Stockton, California.