Los Illuminados

History
Los Illuminados (from Spanish, meaning "The Enlightened", although the double "L" is a mispelling in Spanish) was a cult operating in an unknown rural region in Spain. Los Illuminados was created some time around the 18th century where they worshipped "Las Plagas" ("The Plagues"), a parasitic organism with the ability to control its hosts.

The first Castellan of the region outlawed the cult and had the Plagas sealed in a cave system beneath his castle. Eventually under the rule of the 8th Castellan, the Los Illuminados now under the rule of Osmund Saddler, were allowed to mine the area, for that was how Salazar felt he should atone for the sins of his ancestors, who sealed Las Plagas from the Los Illuminados,[1] effectively occupying his castle which acted as a base for the cult under Saddler.

The entire Los Illuminados were soon implanted with Plagas along with much of the local population who had joined the cult. Saddler himself was implanted with a Master Plaga and as such has direct control over the others, using lieutenants with similarly augmented Plagas to monitor and direct the Ganados on the ground.

The villagers then returned to life as normal as they could, farming, attending cult services at the local church, acting as guards for Salazar's castle or working the mines while the cult zealots engaged in dark rituals and sacrifices in the name of Saddler.

Taken from the Resident Evil wikia

Description...
The Las Plagas have an ability to not only make one more impervious to pain, it also has a strange factor of makign one more radical to their truest desire. For most the the cult, it was protecting their land with whatever item they could find. all items from kitchen knives, all teh way to RPG-7's were used by the Los Illuminados.