Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday morning that her government has filed a lawsuit against Google over its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico on its “Maps” app. The dispute in question arose last February, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order to rename it the Gulf of America.
The order promoted by Trump prompted some local governments and lawmakers in the United States to adopt the new toponym in official documents, which then lead to Google’s implementation of the change on its app, which has replaced the old satnavs for years now.
At the time, the company communicated that users in the U.S. would view the place in question under the name “Gulf of America,” while in Mexico the app would make no changes. Users in the rest of the world, however, would see both toponyms.
The attempt to rename the Gulf has caused several controversies in Mexico, where many have a negative opinion of Trump. “The Trump administration is well within its right to rename its own territory but the maritime zones that are under the control of Mexico or Cuba cannot be relabeled by the United States or anyone else”, Sheinbaum said.
“What we are saying is: ‘Google, abide by what the U.S. government has approved,’” she added, referring to Trump’s executive order, which actually ‘renamed’ only the part of the Gulf that is part of U.S. territory.
In February, Cris Turner, vice president for government affairs and public policy at Google, sent a letter to the Mexican government justifying the change and confirming that people using Maps in the country would continue to see the name “Gulf of Mexico.”
The next day, the local Foreign Ministry stated that relabeling the entire Gulf, even just for U.S. users, “is beyond the powers of any national authority or private entity.” Mexico then said it would take whatever legal action it deemed appropriate.
On Friday, the president’s legal office told the New York Times that the lawsuit was filed in a Mexican court in late March.
