Elías Yáñez

Elías Yáñez came from a family of excellent horsemen including his father, General Elías Yáñez Ponce de Leon, and his half-brother, Jorge Eduardo Yañez Zavala. Elías enrolled in the Military Academy in 1903 and joined the army in 1908 as a second lieutenant of the 1st Cavalry Regiment “Grenadiers”. Two years later he was promoted to lieutenant and entered the Cavalry School.

Yáñez’ first major success as an equestrian came in 1910, when he earned the first place with Chile’s team in the equestrian competition held to mark the Centennial of the Argentine Republic. The team also included Enrique Deichler, who competed alongside Yáñez at the 1912 Olympic Games. In 1911, Yáñez was sent to Germany by the government to join the Military Equestrian Institute Hanover in Germany. In the years leading up to World War I, both spent some time there. This allowed him to participate in the 1912 London Horse Show and the Stockholm Olympics, where Yáñez and his horse Patria placed 25th in the individual show jumping.

He was promoted to captain in 1915 and, while serving in this rank in the Cazadores Regiment (Mounted Rifle regiment), was assigned to the Santiago Police as a military instructor. Yáñez was responsible in its cavalry training, implementing riding courses in all police stations. In this position, he formed a team of equestrian acrobats, the predecessor of the national gendarmerie, the Carabineros de Chile, created in 1927. In the late 1920s, Yáñez returned to the military as captain of the Marine Artillery Regiment. His highest rank was eventually that of colonel.

In 1916, he married Laura Ester Molina Gamboa. At the beginning of World War II, he joined the pro-German movement in Chile, which leaned on the large German population share. In his later years, Elías Yáñez was vice-president of the board of directors of an insurance company for army personnel.