Mexico looks sue Google for the name change of ‘Gulf of America’

By Fabiola Sánchez Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government would not rule out the presentation of a civil lawsuit against Google if she maintains her position to call the sea section between the northeast of Mexico and the southeast of the United States The “Gulf of America of America.”

The area, called for a long time the Gulf of Mexico worldwide, has won a geopolitical focus after President Donald Trump declared that he would change the name of the Gulf.

Sheinbaum, at his morning press conference, said the president’s decree is restricted to the “continental platform of the United States” because Mexico still controls much of the gulf. “We have sovereignty about our continental platform,” he said.

Sheinbaum said that despite the fact that his government sent a letter to Google saying that the company was “wrong” and that “the entire Gulf of Mexico cannot be called the Gulf of America,” the company has insisted on maintaining the nomenclature.

It was not clear immediately where this demand would be filed.

Google reported last month on its X account, previously Twitter, which maintains a “long -term practice to apply name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

Until Thursday, how the Gulf appeared on Google Maps depended on the user’s location and other data. If the user is in the United States, the body of water appeared as Gulf of America. If the user was physically in Mexico, it would appear as the Gulf of Mexico. In many other countries around the world it appears as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly defended the name of the Gulf of Mexico, saying that its use dates back 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.

He has also mentioned that, according to the Constitution of Apatzingán, the antecedent of the first Constitution of Mexico, the territory of North America was previously identified as “Mexican America.” Sheinbaum has used the example to make fun of Trump and underline international implications to change the name of the Gulf.

In that sense, Sheinbaum said Thursday that the Mexican government would ask Google to appear on the “Mexican America” ​​map on the map.

This is not the first time that Mexicans and Americans do not agree with the names of key geographical areas, such as the Border River between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. Mexico calls it Rio Bravo and for the United States is the Rio Grande.

This week, the White House prohibited journalists Associated Press from several events, including some in the Oval office, saying that it was due to the policy of the news agency on the name. AP is using the “Gulf of Mexico”, but also recognizes Trump’s name change also, to ensure that the names of geographical characteristics are recognizable worldwide.