Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her disapproval on Thursday over Google’s decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico on its Google Maps platform. This move followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to rename the body of water to the “Gulf of America.”
In a letter addressed to Google, Sheinbaum’s government argued that the United States cannot unilaterally rename a body of water that it shares with both Mexico and Cuba. The change would apply only to U.S. users of Google Maps once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System. For users in Mexico, the name “Gulf of Mexico” will remain, while internationally, both names will be shown.
The conflict between Sheinbaum and Trump over the name change has escalated, with Sheinbaum previously jesting that, if countries were to start renaming geographical locations, North America should be renamed “Mexican America,” referencing a 1607 map of the region.
Mexico’s position is based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which asserts that a country’s sovereignty only extends 12 nautical miles (about 22 kilometers) from its coastline. As a result, Sheinbaum emphasized that the U.S. could only change the name of the Gulf within its own 12 nautical miles, not beyond that.
In her morning press conference, Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico had requested Google to feature the term “Mexican America” when searched. She called for Google to prominently display this on its platform as part of the broader conversation about territorial naming rights.
