OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:52 PM – Monday, February 17, 2025
Mexico’s first female president has warned that if Google does not restore the label “Gulf of Mexico,” the former designation of the oceanic basin and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, to its popular Google Maps service — then the country will file a lawsuit against them.
On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum asserted that the country will take legal action against Google if it continues to show U.S.-based users the “Gulf of America” designation across the entire body of water.
Sheinbaum continued, arguing that President Donald Trump’s order only applies to the part of the continental shelf under U.S. control.
“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”
Sheinbaum called the renaming “incorrect,” noting that Trump’s order “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the U.S. coast—not the entire Gulf.”
The Mexican president read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the decision to rename the gulf.
“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes to Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.
“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names,” the letter noted.
Sheinbaum also maintained that Mexico would be sending another letter to Google, stating that “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.”
“Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary,” it added.
Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for Google Maps users in the United States this week, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
Sheinbaum concluded that her country will be waiting for a response from the company before proceeding with legal action.
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