An investor informs the government that they're interested in working in a particular area and will ask the government to, in turn, inform the investor whether there are Afro-Colombian or indigenous peoples in the area. This will lead to the beginning of a prior consultation process.
According to legislation in Colombia, no measures such as the issuance of mining deeds can actually be brought about without informing the communities of the intention of investment. Also, there has to be a participation process that will allow the communities to learn about the environmental impact and about the benefits and the revenues that would ultimately favour these communities.
But it so happens that the provisions of the law are not actually respected in practice. This is not what has been done in Colombia. Not one of these 30 deeds—and we'll gladly share the information with you—has been submitted to prior consultations. Decisions are made in Bogota and people are never informed, including the companies.
This is the case of Cosigo, a Canadian company. They do not involve the community. The communities do not know the company; therefore, the rights that are contained in the constitution are violated. There's quite a considerable separation between the provisions of Convention 169 and the applicable law and what's actually practised in relation to the amended mining code—amended in 2001 with the cooperation of Canada.