Montaño was the Vice President of the Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia and the Comptroller of Cochabamba, Bolivia. From 1997 to 2002 she was in the Chamber of Deputies representing the Cochabamba Department. In 1981, during the Bolivian Cocaine Coup, Montaño was the head of the "Union de Mujeres de Bolivia" (Union of Bolivian Women). She was arrested, and stayed in her house, under house arrest. Montaño returned to her work in 1981, after the end of the dictatorship.