He immediately amplified a policy that had already been applied by his predecessors, viceroys Venegas and Calleja, the granting of pardons for insurgent leaders who laid down their arms.

Although the figures are, at least, questionable, it is true that historiography has considered the government of Ruiz de Apocada, in general terms, as a period of increasing pacification of New Spain and, proportionally, as a stage of insurgent decline.

When Guerrero learned of the situation, he tried to convince Colonel José Gabriel de Armijo, a royalist commander in the south, to join his movement.

After these attempts, he wrote a new note to Guerrero on January 10,[6] asking him to withdraw from the struggle, that the government would respect his military position and grant him a pardon.

[7] The first to point out the meeting was the deserter Tomás Cajigal, who (to ingratiate himself with the viceregal government), accused Iturbide of having placed himself under Guerrero's orders.

He quotes a letter from Iturbide to the viceroy, dated February 18, 1821, in which the former said that: Not having been able to inspire the necessary confidence in that caudillo to answer with me, we managed to get the individual who deserves all his trust, namely Don José Figueroa, to come.

He imagined a dialogue between the caudillos, which is the one that tradition has preserved:[10] I cannot explain the satisfaction I experience when I meet a patriot who has upheld the noble cause of independence and has single-handedly survived so many disasters, keeping alive the sacred fire of freedom.

Receive this just tribute to your courage and your virtues.I sir, say to you, I congratulate my country for recovering on this day a son whose courage and knowledge have been so dismal.Lucas Alamán rejected Zavala's version, as he recovered Iturbide's report and, with other sources, supported that the insurgent who met in Teloloapan with Iturbide was José Figueroa, who was empowered by Guerrero to arrange all the conditions.