On Friday morning, Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum said her government sued Google over the company’s decision to label the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America.” Presidential Order Rename the bay.
The order urged some U.S. local governments and lawmakers to accept the use of names in official documents. Google is now implementing changes to maps. US users will see the waters under new names while Mexicans continue to see the Gulf of Mexico, the company announcement In a statement. Both names will be displayed in the rest of the world.
But for Sinbaum, who once joked about the possibility that the US could be renamed “Mexico America,” even a compromise crosses the line. One-sided attempts to rename the Gulf Coast have sparked ridiculous and anger in Mexico. Many people have negative opinions Trump’s Generally approved Sinbaum’s calm approach to navigating his series of threats, according to recent polls.
“What we’re talking about is, ‘Google, protect what the US government has approved,'” she told reporters, referring to the order that renamed only US-controlled maritime areas, not the entire bay.
While the Trump administration is within the right to rename its own territory, a maritime zone under Mexico or Cuba’s control cannot be associated with the United States or anyone else, she said. “We had no business telling them to change the name of the state, mountain or lake,” she added.
In February, Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, sent a letter to the Mexican government justifying the changes and confirming that people using Google Maps in Mexico continue to look at the Gulf of Mexico.
“This is consistent with the usual operating procedures to reflect the geographic names of platforms as defined by various authoritative government sources,” the letter states, including locations where these sources “may be different.”
The next day, the Mexican Foreign Office said in another letter to Turner that even American users alone “exceeds the authority of national authorities or private organizations.” The ministry said Mexico will take legal action that it deems appropriate.
Sinbaum didn’t say exactly where when her administration filed the lawsuit against Google on Friday, but added that she had already had a “first resolution.” The president’s Office of Legal Affairs told the New York Times that the lawsuit was filed in a Mexican court in late March.
