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Two training partners meeting on the mat.Drawn in cream, forest green, and muted terracotta. People and objects are symbolic illustrations.
Portrait unavailable. General BJJ illustration; not a likeness of this person.Illustration: The BJJ Story

Andres Perez Belmar

Andrés Pérez Belmar grew Cohab from early basement classes into a teaching network, combining competition with attention to how students learn.

Biography

Andrés Pérez Belmar's life before teaching jiu-jitsu included rugby and environmental engineering. His friend and later student Esteban Darquea Cabezas recalls rugby occupying much of his childhood and youth. The two studied environmental engineering together at Universidad de Viña del Mar, forming a friendship that would continue into their work on the mats. Finding instruction required an effort of its own. A 2015 BJJ Heroes report traces Pérez's interest in Brazilian jiu-jitsu to around 2003, when opportunities to learn locally were limited. He contacted experienced practitioners online, hoping someone would teach a workshop in Chile. Everdan Olegário, known as Mestre Dan, responded and visited in 2004. Their connection continued through repeated trips by Pérez to Brazil to train and compete. Darquea remembers joining an early group around 2007–2008, when Pérez was a blue belt beginning to teach. They borrowed a karate dojo twice a week, training on grey mats in a cold basement in central Viña del Mar. The group was small, and the work demanding. An April 2009 Cohab Viña post also records Pérez helping organise a local tournament, sharing the credit with Carlos and Alejandro. Learning, teaching and creating opportunities to compete were developing together. The club announced Mestre Dan's promotion of Pérez to brown belt in April 2011. In a November 2014 interview published by Viña del Mar's Historia Deportiva, Pérez said he had received his black belt that March. He was then working as an environmental engineer for the municipality. Competition was changing his training priorities: after the 2014 Worlds in Long Beach, he shifted attention from weights and general conditioning towards technical jiu-jitsu. He wanted to win, but also measured a performance by whether he had given everything on the mat, even in defeat. Teaching extended beyond competitors alone. In that 2014 interview, he described classes for women and men aged thirteen to fifty, with a separate Saturday session for younger children. He reported more than 150 students at Viña, roughly ten of them on full scholarships. Cohab had also developed branches in several Chilean cities and Cuenca, Ecuador. In its 2015 account, BJJ Heroes described the Chilean network as exceeding 400 students and credited Vitor Soto and Hansel Bermúdez with helping Pérez and Olegário develop it. Knee surgery in February 2015 interrupted his competitive work. By April, he reported returning to hard training and winning his first comeback tournament in Villa Alemana. Reflecting on Long Beach, he identified a practical disadvantage: his international opponents could compete almost every weekend, while he had fewer opportunities to gain that experience. A September 2015 club visit identified him as president of Club Deportivo Cohab Jiu Jitsu Viña del Mar. His subsequent results include silver in adult black-belt lightweight at the 2016 Sul-Brasileiro championship. A visitor's account gives a more everyday view of the academy. Training at Cohab Viña in 2017, Mark Magpusao described Pérez as welcoming and able to speak English with him. About three daily classes and weekend open mats let Magpusao fit training around his hostel work. Darquea's own account explains what he valued as a student. Writing in 2021, he recalled Pérez making sure students understood why a technique worked, rather than merely memorising it. He also credited his teacher with helping him develop self-confidence and respect for others. By then Darquea was directing Cohab Ecuador from Cuenca, with seven branches in his own account. In a later tribute, he connected Pérez's teaching with a lasting sense of purpose and his wish to pass the art to future generations. Pérez now leads Cohab Central Chile. The Quintero affiliate identifies its instructor Sergio Iturra as a black belt promoted by him and describes cross-training between schools as part of its learning and community life. His later competition record includes bronze in Master 2 black-belt medium-heavyweight at the 2024 São Paulo IBJJF No-Gi Open, contested without the traditional training uniform. In August 2025, INACAP's report on the Floripa Winter International Open again identified him leading the Cohab team.

Sources for this profile

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