How do you rebuild a democracy? How does a society torn by dictatorship and official murder find justice? “P.O.V.” (9 p.m., PBS) presents “The Judge and the General,” a profile of Chilean judge Juan Guzman, the man who oversaw an official investigation into the crimes of that country’s military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990.

With his reputation as a safe and conservative jurist and a former Pinochet supporter, Guzman’s 1998 appointment chagrined many critics of the old regime. But Guzman surprised everyone with his methodical research.

He met with the families of victims and unearthed killing fields in remote caves, mountains and even at the bottom of the ocean. He is seen here with forensic experts exhuming the skeletal remains of an “accident” victim who clearly died as a result of a gun fired at close range.

As Guzman makes clear in interviews, the process became a wake-up call for him and for other comfortable Chileans who remained blissfully ignorant as their government seized thousands of students, professors, writers and dissidents, imprisoned them, tortured them and then made many “disappear.”

The film offers a cautionary tale for Americans, as well. Up until the coup that installed Pinochet on Sept. 11, 1973, Chile had a long history of democratic government. Nobody dreamed that their rule of law and elections could be so fragile and end in an instant.

The film begins and ends with scenes of rallies by fanatical supporters of the dictator Pinochet, who died in 2006 before facing trial. None of the language or attitudes expressed by these angry thugs would seem out of place on American talk radio.

¢ The voyeuristic series “Secret Lives of Women” (9 p.m., WE) looks at a young woman whose family abandoned her after she left the Church of Scientology.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Summer Olympics (7 p.m., NBC) coverage includes track and field, gymnastics, diving and BMX cycling.

¢ An astronaut misplaces her senses on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Cameron learns to dance on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ “Making the Band” (8 p.m., MTV) enters its fourth season.

¢ “Wide Angle” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) looks at the widely unreported story of Iraqi refugees and the millions of civilians who have relocated in Jordan and Syria.

¢ A hero rescues a young boy and then disappears on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

¢ Scheduled on “Primetime” (9 p.m., ABC): medical mysteries.

¢ The celebrity family glances back at the past year on “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood” (9 p.m., Oxygen). It just won’t be the same without the pug.

Cult choice

A young woman (Barbara Stanwyck) uses all of her wiles to get to the top of the banking world in the controversial 1933 drama “Baby Face” (2:15 p.m., TCM). Its cynical take on sex and big business helped usher in the Hollywood censorship known as “The Code.” Look for a young John Wayne as an eager office boy. It’s part of a 24-hour salute to Stanwyck.