On 19 January 1972, an ETA group formed by Txomin Iturbe, Mikel Lujua, Tomas Perez Revilla and Argala kidnapped the businessman Lorenzo Zabala Suinaga in Abadiño, Biscay. The workers of the company Precicontrol were on strike, with some of them, including some friends of Argala, on a hunger strike in the church of Eibar. ETA wanted to support labour conditions and turned their attention to the workers' demands. They declared that if the company's management didn't meet their workers' demands, they would kill Zabala on 28 January. The demands were satisfied and Zabala was freed on 22 January.