Background

Following President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's economic and political reforms, including NAFTA, Mexico was becoming an important player in the world economy. In 1995, the Zapatistas began a rebellion against the government. The Salinas government started immediate peace talks. In the last months of the Salinas administration, a wave of politically-motivated assassinations took place in Mexico. Victims included Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, front runner presidential candidate Colosio whom Zedillo replaced as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate, José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, brother-in-law of President Salinas and PRI Secretary General.

In the early days of the subsequent Zedillo administration, Zedillo undertook a series of decisions that broke with the previous administration agreements and with his own earlier action plan, leading to the 1995 Zapatista Crisis. To give credibility to the investigations of the killings, Zedillo appointed Antonio Lozano Gracia, a member of opposing National Action Party (PAN), as Attorney General.

Defense of Marcos

During the investigation to identify Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos, the Mexican government claimed that he was a dangerous guerrilla fighter; this theory gained traction at the end of 1994, after the dissident Zapatista, Subcomandante Daniel (alias Salvador Morales Garibay), gave away the identity of his fellow Zapatistas to the Mexican government, among them Marcos' identity.^[5] They all were indicted for terrorism, and warrants for their arrest were issued. On February 9, 1995, in a presidential broadcast, Zedillo announced Subcomandante Marcos' identity, claiming he was one Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, a former professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana School of Sciences and Arts for Design. Zedillo had accused Marcos of terrorism.^[6][7]

Appedole played a major role with the Mexican government.^[8] Appedole advised against a military solution to the Zapatista rebellion in 1995.^[9] He further claimed that Guillén was a pacifist rather than a terrorist, and was his friend and classmate with the Jesuits at the Instituto Cultural Tampico. Appedole recognized literary style in all of Marcos' published manifestos and linked them to literary tournaments organized by the Jesuits in which they competed.^{[10][11][9][12][13][14]}

Meeting with Marcos

Before going underground, Guillén met with Appedole, who had parted ways with him after high school. Guillén served as the President of the Mexican Federation of Aquaculture. Guillén invited his old friend to speak at a conference at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. Appedole accepted his invitation with the condition that Guillén accompany him during his visit. Guillén attended the congress to meet with Appedole as they had agreed as the last public act of the man who would later become Subcomandante Marcos.