Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country will sue Google if it continues to label the entire body of water of Mexico’s eastern coast the “Gulf of America.”
Sheinbaum made the announcement Monday, weeks after President Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Google changed its maps to label the body of water the “Gulf of America” for U.S. users while maintaining the “Gulf of Mexico” label for Mexican users.
But Sheinbaum said that is not enough. She claimed that Trump’s order “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast—not the entire Gulf,” according to CNN. She now wants the Gulf of America label to be applied to only the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction for U.S. users.
“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 U.S. continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”
She previously threatened Google with a civil lawsuit over the name change last week. During the Monday press conference, she read part of a letter that Google had initially sent back and noted that Mexico would wait for the latest response from Google after the Monday threat before moving forward with legal action.
Trump’s decision to push forward with the “Gulf of America” renaming has courted controversy and logistical obstacles for companies.
For instance, the Associated Press, which produces the AP Stylebook used by many news outlets, was barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its continued usage of “Gulf of Mexico.”
In a Friday post on X, Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff for communications, elaborated on the decision to ban AP reporters from certain spaces in the White House while hitting out at the news organization.
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“This decision is not just divisive, but it also exposes the Associated Press’ commitment to misinformation,” Budowich said. “While their right to irresponsible and dishonest reporting is protected by the First Amendment, it does not ensure their privilege of unfettered access to limited spaces, like the Oval Office and Air Force One.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents journalists in the White House press pool, said in a statement that the White House’s decision to bar the AP is “a textbook violation of not only the First Amendment, but the president’s own executive order on freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.”