‘Have you ever smelled a cadaver?’ Family recounts horror after Costa Rican man deported in vegetative state
Jan 11, 2026
Much of what happened to Randall Gamboa Esquivel, 52, over his last weeks in federal custody in Texas remains a mystery to his familyFamily seeks answers after ICE deports man to Costa Rica in vegetative stateA few days before Christmas in Pérez Zeledón, a city in Costa Rica, Greidy Mata stared at
two photographs of her late brother. In one image, Randall Gamboa Esquivel flashed a smile prior to his immigration to the United States a year before. In the second, he was lying in a hospital bed in a vegetative state, after being deported back home.Dinner was served, but Mata seemed indifferent. She kept switching between one photograph and the other until she suddenly recounted that a year ago, in what would become the last family reunion, Gamboa announced he would be leaving for New Jersey. Continue reading...
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