This week, we look at the threat of socialist revolution and guerrilla warfare from the perspective of the right, which took control of much of the hemisphere through military dictatorships in the 1970s and 80s.

Above, left: In Argentina's Dirty War against subversion, the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo demanded the opening of military records every Thursday beginning in 1977. They were called "Las Locas de la Plaza" by their opponents.

Above, right: A wounded soldier being evacuated in northern Quiche, Guatemala, in the early 1980s, during the counter-insurgency 'scorched earth' campaign designed to root out leftist guerrillas in the largely indigenous highlands.

Websites:

A fascinating interview with Arturo Alessandri, a Chilean conservative, on the circumstances leading to the coup of Sept. 11, 1973. Look also at the interviews of Duane Claridge for a soft Alliance for Progress perspective from the U.S., and of Paul Wimert for a U.S. military perspective.
The trial of Adolfo Scilingo in Spain. There's lots more on the Scilingo trial and the trial of Pinochet on the web, including this site of the Spanish human rights group Equipo Nizkor.

And media alerts:

Paramilitary victims look for justice in Colombia
Michelle Bachelet dedicates a theater at a former detention center in Chile (scroll down to the end)
Courtroom reaction to the judgment against Miguel Etchekolatz, former police commissioner of Buenos Aires, this past September. In May 2006, when the trial began, Etchekolatz's defenders took to the streets; this clip includes footage from a recent march protesting the disappearance of prosecution witness Jorge Julio Lopez, who has not been seen since the morning of the sentencing. He is 77 years old.