Hiram Rosado (1911-February 23, 1936) was a member of the Cadets of the Republic, the paramilitary wing of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who, together with fellow Cadet Elías Beauchamp, carried out the 1936 assassination of Col. Elisha Francis Riggs, the United States appointed chief of the Puerto Rico Police.

The cadets was a quasi-military youth organization of the Nationalist Party also known as the "Liberation Army of Puerto Rico".

[4] 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.

[6] On October 24, 1935, a student assembly held at the university declared Albizu Campos as "persona non grata."

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.

[3][7] 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 the Puerto Rico Police in 1933, by Blanton Winship, the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico.

The nationalists believed that Col. Elisha F. Riggs was responsible for the massacre, as the chief of the Puerto Rico Police.

[9] 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.

Believing that he had a witness to the events Riggs told Beauchamps that he was headed to the police station and to accompany him.