Important specific agreements that both parties agreed to comply with were reached, in which the Mexican army withdraw of particular points, such as San Andres Larrainzar, and Marcos accepted a group of citizens to be involved in a formal negotiation to start in a couple of weeks.
On February 9, 1995, in a televised special Presidential broadcast, President Ernesto Zedillo announced Subcomandante Marcos to be one Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, born June 19, 1957, in Tampico, Tamaulipas to Spanish immigrants, and a former professor at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana School of Sciences and Arts for the Design.
Appedole played a significant role with the Mexican government to avoid a military solution to the 1995 Zapatista Crisis, by demonstrating that contrary to the accusations made by Zedillo, Rafael Guillén was not a terrorist.
[6][7][8][9] Once Subcomandante Marcos was identified as Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, on February 9, 1995, President Ernesto Zedillo took a series of decisions that completely broke with the previous strategy.
The action plan previously defined, and the agreements he authorized his Secretary of Interior Esteban Moctezuma to compromise with Marcos just three days before in Guadalupe Tepeyac.
Javier Elorriaga was captured on February 9, 1995, in a military garrison at Gabina Velázquez in Las Margarita's town and later taken to the Cerro Hueco prison in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.
[13] The PGR arrested the San Cristóbal de Las Casas Catholic Bishop, Samuel Ruiz García, for allegedly concealing the Zapatistas guerrilla activity.
In response, Mexico-Vatican diplomatic relations deteriorated,[14] partly because of the May 24, 1993, political assassination of a Prince of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, Mexico, that the PGR had left unsolved.
The facts seemed to confirm Manuel Camacho Solis's 16 June 1994 accusations that his resignation as the Chiapas Peace Commissioner was due to sabotage done by then-presidential candidate Ernesto Zedillo.
For these primary reasons, the Mexican army eased actions, giving an opportunity that Marcos capitalized on to escape the military site he was placed in the Lacandon Jungle.
[15] Faced with this situation, Max Appedole asked for help from Edén Pastora, the legendary Nicaraguan "Commander Zero", to prepare a report for under-Secretary of the Interior Luis Maldonado on Marcos's degree of pacifism, if any.
[16] The document concluded that the complaints of marginalized groups and the radical left in México had been vented through the Zapatistas movement, while Marcos maintained an open negotiating track.
[17] On March 10, 1995, President Ernesto Zedillo and Secretary of the Interior Esteban Moctezuma signed the Presidential Decree for the Dialog, the Reconciliation, and a peace with dignity in Chiapas Law.
[18] On the night of 3 April 1995 at 8:55 pm, the Secretary of Interior, Esteban Moctezuma sent Luis Maldonado to deliver a letter to representatives of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
In a strategically calculated move, Luis Maldonado proposed a definitive suspension of hostilities and distention measures always proportionally higher to the Mexican government to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
(April 7, 1995, meeting ended at 4:00 a.m.)[20] Without much hope of dialogue, it was already in hostile conditions as the Secretary of Interior negotiator Luis Maldonado began his return to Mexico City.
When passing by the Ejido San Miguel, a patrol of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation beckons them to stop, surprised without even knowing what was happening, he was handed a radio, by means of which Mexico under-Secretary of Interior Luis Maldonado achieved with the Subcomandante Marcos the re-initiation of the Dialog with all the necessary agreements per the law to start the formal peace talks dialog between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexican government.
Under-Secretary of Interior Luis Maldonado attended to find a solution, alone, without any security measures, or media coverage, going to the Lacandon Jungle to negotiate with Subcomandante Marcos.
After a rocky start because of conflicting intelligence that caused President Ernesto Zedillo was heading to a military solution, and when the intelligence issue was cleared, confirming that Subcomandante Marcos was no terrorist but a pacifist by nature, as well as all the other conclusions that Secretary of Interior Esteban Moctezuma also gave to Zedillo with the purpose of trying to avoid a bloodbath of the Mexican indigenous people, as well to prevent other also terrible repercussions of an immoral and unnecessary tragic outcome.
On appeal, the Court dismisses the previous condemnatory Sentence for the alleged Zapatistas Javier Elorriaga Berdegué and Sebastian Etzin Gomez given on May 2, 1996, for the crime of terrorism, with 13 and 6 years of imprisonment respectively and they were released on June 6, 1996.