El Cid rides again! With Los Caballeros Templarios...

(Historical Context) Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador ("The lord-master of military arts"), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat. He was the subject of the oldest extant Spanish epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid. 

After his death, but still during the siege of Valencia, legend holds that Jimena, his wife, ordered that the corpse of El Cid be fitted with his armor and set atop his horse Babieca, to bolster the morale of his troops. In several variations of the story, the dead Rodrigo and his knights win a thundering charge against Valencia's besiegers, resulting in a war-is-lost-but-battle-is-won catharsis for generations of Christian Spaniards to follow.

Nazario Moreno Gonzalez

If you were to ask any of the members of Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), they would tell you that they follow the LIVING Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (El Chayo, El Mas Loco) despite the fact that the Mexican government killed him on Decamber 9, 2010. In much the way that Elvis sightings are common, LCT members are constantly reporting that they - and more likely others have claimed to them that they've seen El Chayo at various occasions since his death.

I've spoken to a number of hard core LCT people to include port and plaza managers and they all affirm that El Chayo is alive and well. For all I know, he is. I didn't see his corpse. LCT essentially treats El Chayo the way the Christian Spaniards did with El Cid...

La Tuta is only one of the old leaders who is still running around and can be seen here and there. Servando Gomez Martinez is very thin and doesn't look well these days. 

LCT has been buying up every round of .38 Super ammunition that they can get their hands on. In fact, I have a suspicion that since the only place .38 Super is popular is in Mexico, most of that ammunition made in the US makes its way eventually into Mexico. (due to the way that the law is written, .38 is the largest caliber allowed to be held by non-Mexican Military inside of Mexico)

I personally believe that the incoming Pena Nieto Administration will leave LCT alone so long as they stay in Michoacan and parts of Colima. A friend of mine in LCT said, "Good luck with that." However there is a certain pragmatism that comes with the changing Mexican view of the drug war and I feel that pragmatism will win out. They'll still cook methamphetamine for destinations in the United States - but it will work out better for them if they're unmolested and they 'stay on the reservation'. LCT, as with LFM before it, is a regional cartel and a mafia that has very strong local roots, unlike the Sinaloa Federation.