Mexican cartel to stop violence for Pope's visit

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The Knights Templars drugs cartel is calling a short truce - but only to welcome Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico, an official said on Sunday.

"They did put up signs announcing this," a Guanajuato state government source told privately.

"The Knights Templars are holding off on all violent action, we are not killers, welcome to the pope," the official said paraphrasing one of the signs put up in the town of Irapuato, Guanajuato state.

The signs were seen in at least seven towns statewide.

The pope arrives on March 23 in Leon, in the neighboring state of Michoacan, where the Knights Templars were founded.

President Felipe Calderon has launched a military crackdown against the cartels battling it out for control of the lucrative drug trade, in which some 50,000 Mexicans have lost their lives since 2006.