GUATEMALA CITY  An average of 16 murder victims turn up in Guatemala every day, some shot, some stabbed, some bludgeoned, and only about 3 percent of the cases are ever solved. Even in the rare instances when a killer is arrested, the suspect frequently turns out to be a hit man hired by some shadowy figure who is never identified and gets away to plot again.

But of the more than 2,500 killings on the books this year, one unsolved case has jolted this country like no other. The recent shooting death of Rodrigo Rosenberg, a prominent lawyer, has incited Guatemalans to pour into the streets by the hundreds of thousands and focused all eyes on a United Nations commission created to prop up Guatemala’s ailing judiciary.

The killing of Mr. Rosenberg, early in the morning on Mother’s Day, would have been just one more in a long list of mysterious murders  that is, if Mr. Rosenberg had not foreseen his killing and identified the people he believed were out to get him in a chilling video he prepared days before he died.

“My name is Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, and unfortunately, if you are watching the message, it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom,” he said, going on to also blame the president’s wife, Sandra Torres; the president’s personal secretary, Gustavo Alejos; and various bankers and businessmen.