A Day of Mourning : Pacoima: Eatery fills with speculation and regret after the killing. Area residents blame the drug cartel, the Chiapas rebels and the system itself.

At Lenchita’s, a small restaurant and tortilleria in Pacoima favored by Mexican immigrants, reaction to the assassination of the man who would be president of Mexico varied from conspiracy theories involving Indian rebels from Chiapas or vengeful drug lords to indifference to a political system that has allowed one party to rule for more than 65 years.

“Something like this had to happen for things to change in Mexico,” said Bernardo Quintana, 45, who grew up in Mexico and El Paso, Tex. Colosio “was a beautiful person, but unfortunately he was with the old political system.”

The mystery surrounding the motives of the assassin who shot Luis Donaldo Colosio, 44, the candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, at a campaign appearance in Tijuana, left room for speculation among the noisy lunch crowd at Lenchita’s.

Although Mexican authorities arrested Mario Aburto Martinez, 23, for the shooting, no motive had been determined when diners gathered in the sparsely decorated restaurant tucked behind a Mexican deli and grocery store in the 13600 block of Van Nuys Boulevard.

“I think it is connected to the Zapatista rebels from Chiapas,” said Luis Saavedra, 21, who left Michoacan seven years ago and now lives in Pacoima. Saavedra noted that the accused gunman was originally from Michoacan.

“People from Michoacan love Cardenas,” he said, referring to Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, 1988 presidential candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, who many thought had actually won the election but was denied victory by PRI election officials.

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The PRI has won every presidential election in 65 years and Colosio, in turn, was the handpicked successor of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a practice resented by many Mexicans who would prefer a democratic vote.

“I think things are changing in Mexico,” said Saavedra’s dining companion, Raul Sanchez of Zamora, oblivious to the patting sound of women making tortillas behind the counter. “They’re not stealing as much.”

But Maria Samano of San Fernando said that making the Indian rebels the prime suspects is exactly what drug dealers want.

“To me, it’s the drug cartel that shot him,” said Samano, 40, who left her native Colima state in Mexico 30 years ago. “They want to make it look political, like it stems from Chiapas.”

Samano said she fears that violence and terrorism will break out in Mexico and is now uncertain if she will allow her two teen-age daughters to travel alone to visit relatives there this summer.

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Brenda Rivera, 28, of Mission Hills, who was eating lunch with her parents, Andrew and Gloria Hernandez, sees the assassination not as a political issue but as a human tragedy.

“I don’t know too much about Mexican politics, but I think it is a shame that this would happen to someone who is trying to help others,” Rivera said over the din of crying children and clanging silverware. “For whatever reason, violence is not the answer.

Rivera’s mother, who described herself as a devout Jehovah’s witness, said it’s now all in the hands of God.

“Politicians promise a lot but they don’t deliver because they are not perfect,” said Gloria Hernandez, a native of Durango, Mexico. “But God is perfect. Men are not going to be able to solve the problems of the world. Only God can do that.”