Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which held its National Assembly outside Mexican territory for the first time in its history, is setting up offices in New York, as part of a strategy to forge closer ties with its immigrant community.

The assembly, held simultaneously in the cities with the greatest number of Mexican immigrants – Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and New York – proposed several initiatives to its sympathizers, members and invited guests, including a drive for the votes of Mexicans outside the country, the creation of mechanisms to lower the costs of sending money home, and the establishment of PRI offices in countries other than Mexico.

The PRI’s National Assembly in New York was attended by around 40 people, including party sympathizers, activists and invited guests.

Enrique Ochoa, president of the New York Assembly, told Diario de México that among the topics of discussion at the round tables, three primary points stood out: “getting out the vote among Mexicans outside of Mexico for the presidential election of 2006; gathering and publicizing information on cheap and secure ways to send money home; and creating a PRI office in New York to attend to the needs of the immigrant community in the tri-state area.”

Furthermore, Ochoa said that they are planning a meeting in New York for February 27, when delegates from the assemblies held in the various U.S. cities to produce a final document to be presented at the concluding sessions of the PRI’s National Assembly in Mexico City in March. Ochoa added that the N.Y. meeting will by attended by attorneys Samuel Aguilar, coordinator of international affairs of the PRI’s National Executive Committee (CEN), and José Murat, president of the International Affairs Commission of the PRI’s National Political Committee.

The organizing committee for the PRI’s National Assembly in New York was headed by Enrique Ochoa, assembly president, Ernesto Casteñeda, secretary, and Roberto Inda, secretary.