Elías Beauchamp (June 8, 1908 – February 23, 1936) was a member of the Cadets of the Republic, the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.

Beauchamp is best known for having assassinated Col. Elisha Francis Riggs, the United States appointed chief of the Puerto Rico Police, along with fellow Cadet Hiram Rosado.

Both men were arrested and shot without trial, officially while attempting to escape, at Police Headquarters in San Juan.

[3][4] He met and married Ana Luisa Perez and moved to San Juan where he was employed by J. Ramirez & Sons, an import and export company.

[8] On October 20, 1935, in a political meeting which the Nationalist Party held in the town of Maunabo and which was transmitted by radio, Albizu Campos denounced Chardón, the university deans and the Liberal Party as traitors, saying they wanted to convert the university into an "American" propaganda institution.

In turn, a protest against the group by the pro-Nationalist faction of students denounced Chardón and the Liberal Party as agents of the United States.

Chardón requested that the governor provide armed police officers on the university grounds, in case the situation turned violent.

Two police officers spotted a "suspicious-looking vehicle" and asked the driver, Ramón S. Pagán, and his friend Pedro Quiñones, for identification.

According to the local newspaper "El Mundo" of Oct. 25th, an explosion, followed by gunfire, was heard resulting in the additional deaths of Eduardo Rodríguez Vega and José Santiago Barea.

At the time Elisha Francis Riggs was the United States appointed police chief of Puerto Rico.

[7][11] Colonel Elisha Francis Riggs was born in Georgetown, a historic neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C. Riggs was a former officer in the United States Army who was appointed Chief of Police of Puerto Rico in 1933, by Blanton Winship, the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico.

[13] On Sunday, February 23, 1936, Elisha F. Riggs had attended mass in the Church of Santa Ana in San Juan.

When the mass was over, Riggs stepped out of the church and got into his car, a Packard, driven by Angel Alvarez, a police officer.

[13] Gruening then joined US Senator Millard Tydings a Democrat from Maryland, in a legislative proposal to grant independence to Puerto Rico.