Mexico waits for Google response before filing lawsuit over Gulf dispute

Mexico has objected to Google changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the ‘Gulf of America’ for users in the US.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said her government is awaiting a second response from Google over Mexico’s demand that the tech giant fully restore the Gulf of Mexico name on Google Maps before it files a lawsuit.

The Gulf currently appears in Google Maps as the “Gulf of America” when accessed from within the United States, while it appears as the “Gulf of Mexico” when accessed from Mexico. When accessed internationally, both names appear in the format: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said at a news briefing on Monday, in which she shared a letter from Google addressed to her government saying its policy on the name will not change.

“Under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction,” Mexican authorities also said in a statement.

Mexico argues that Google’s mapping policy violates its sovereignty as the US only has jurisdiction over about 46 percent of the gulf. Mexico controls some 49 percent of the gulf, while Cuba controls about 5 percent.

‘Mexican America’

Google’s move to change the name of the gulf came last week in response to US President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water, as part of a wider initiative intended to “honour American greatness”.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One as he signed the order, Trump said February 9 would now be known as “Gulf of America Day”.

The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates back to 1607 and is the title officially recognised by the United Nations.

After Trump’s order, Sheinbaum sarcastically suggested that North America be renamed “Mexican America”, as it was once referred to in one of the country’s founding documents.

Trump’s executive order also restored the name “Mount McKinley” – North America’s highest peak located in Alaska and named after former US President William McKinley in 1917. The move overturned the Obama administration’s 2015 decision to recognise the mountain’s Indigenous name, Denali.

Google has said it will also comply with this order on Mount McKinley once the change is made in the US’s official database.

In Google’s letter to Mexico’s government, Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, said the firm was using “Gulf of America” to follow its “longstanding maps policies” that it applies “impartially and consistently across all regions”.

Turner added in his letter that the company is willing to meet in person with the Mexican government to discuss the issue.

“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.