MEXICO CITY, Feb 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo urged Google to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” for U.S. users of Google Maps, threatening to file a civil lawsuit against the technology corporation if it does not comply.
“If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles. It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google,” Sheinbaum Pardo told reporters in Mexico City.
Google changed the name of the large body of water on Google Maps this week after the Geographic Names Information System altered the name in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America.”
The Geographic Names Information System, which is under the U.S. Geological Survey, provides the names used in Google Maps and Apple Maps. Google said in a statement on X that it would comply with President Trump’s name change.
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” the post from Google reads.
Sheinbaum Pardo has repeatedly decried these moves by both Trump and Google and called them defiant to international norms.
At a press conference in late January, Sheinbaum Pardo told reporters that she sent a letter to Google asking the company not to comply with Trump’s order, arguing that the U.S. cannot unilaterally rename the body of water because the country shares it with Cuba and Mexico.
On Thursday, she doubled down on her message and threatened a lawsuit against Google.
“The decree states continental shelf. That’s how it was published. So, it has to be complied with. The only place where the United States can call it something different is where it exercises sovereignty, and that’s 22 nautical miles from the coast: in its territory,” Sheinbaum Pardo said. “You cannot call the entire Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.”
Despite Sheinbaum Pardo’s vehement opposition to Google, technology company Apple has also renamed the body of water. U.S. users of Apple Maps now also see the “Gulf of America” name in place of the Gulf of Mexico. — NNN-AGENCIES
