In the mid-1970s, while studying sociology at the University of Chile, she began to identify with the struggle of those opposed to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and took part in numerous student demonstrations. By the late 1970s she and her right-wing father, Hugo, had a very strained relationship.[3][4]
She became part of the FPMR in February 1984,[3] convinced that "the struggle is the only realistic and valid way to change the course of the country".[citation needed] She left her daughter in the care of a friend and did not contact her family again.[3] Shortly after joining, a fellow member of the Frente dubbed her "Tamara", in reference to Argentine revolutionary Tamara Bunke.
Over time, "Tamara" became a "commander" within FPMR, standing out as the only woman who occupied a command position in the closed leadership of the FPMR. Her work was centered in Santiago de Chile and Rancagua,[3] cities where she recruited new members for the organization and provided logistical support for the emerging combat groups in those regions.
In mid-1986, "Commander Tamara" was given the responsibility of leading one of the riskiest actions undertaken by the FPMR up to that point: the attempted assassination of Augusto Pinochet, also known as Operation 20th Century (Spanish: Operación Siglo XX). During the mission, "Tamara" acted as the right hand of the top leader of the attack, José Joaquín Valenzuela Levi, also known as "Commander Ernesto". Her job was to provide the operational base and the vehicles that would be used in the attack. In late August,[5] she and fellow FPMR member César Bunster rented a house and three vehicles, and coordinating the transfer of the weapons that would be used in the ambush.
Initial plans had Magni acting s a riflewoman in the operation, but she was pulled from the role at the last minute, due to the high probability that the combatants would not come out alive. Magni's experience was deemed too valuable to risk.
After the attack, she went underground until 1988, at the beginning of the failed National Patriotic War. On 21 October 1988,[6][7] "Commander Tamara" and Raúl Pellegrin, her partner and main commander of the FPMR, led the taking of Los Queñes in the Maule Region. During the assault, they attacked the Los Queñes police checkpoint, which was manned by two police officers. One, Corporal Juvenal Vargas, was killed and the other police officer was wounded.[6] The FPMR stole the officers' weapons and the radio transmitter of the post, cut the telephone cables of the town, and erected the FPMR flag.
In the days following the operation, a significant part of the group was captured by Carabineros who were combing the area. The Front did not hear about Luis Eduardo Arriagada Toro (alias "Bigote") until several weeks later. They realized that he was the informant of the ambush in the Teno River, since he was not on the list of the dead, nor in the secret board.[8] On 28 October 1988, the body of Cecilia Magni was found floating in the Tinguiririca River; her body showed signs of electric shocks and wounds from blunt instruments.[6][7] Raúl Pellegrin's body was also recovered from the river several days later.[6][7] The National Commission alleged that the two had been caught by government agents while fleeing the area and had been subsequently tortured.[7] The judicial investigation into her death was prolonged without success for many years, as the courts lacked evidence to attribute her wounds to third parties, and her death was ultimately ruled as accidental.[8] In 2013, the Court of Appeals of Rancagua acquitted the four police officers accused of Magni's killing.[9]
