Philadelphia, December 12, 2016 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela held meetings with top international agencies on Thursday with the aim of coordinating efforts to guarantee access to key imported medicines in the South American country.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez met with representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Development Program (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) with whom she discussed the creation of mechanisms to streamline medical imports.

“We are going expand cooperation via a strategic, rotating fund in order to acquire medications in different areas and improve provisioning in our country,” the top diplomat announced.

Over the last two years, Venezuela has been hard hit by the collapse of global oil prices– the source of 96 percent of its foreign currency earnings– which has severely reduced its access to key food and medical imports.

Nonetheless, Venezuela’s left-leaning government has resisted calls by the United States and European Union in recent months to accept “humanitarian aid”, which it considers an attempt to interfere in its internal affairs.

“We are working for the country and we are doing it in order not to succumb to the pressures from the imperialist power centers that are trying to push back the rights of the Venezuelan people," Rodriguez added.

In October, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) confirmed that Venezuela is “definitely not” facing a “humanitarian crisis,” despite a string of recent international media reports that have routinely compared the situation in the South American country to Syria and other war-torn countries.