Sheinbaum: Mexico may sue Google over ‘Gulf of America’ name change

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government could file a civil lawsuit against Google over the tech company’s decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for United States users of its maps website and app.

Google made the change after United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.

“Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall … take all appropriate actions to rename as the ‘Gulf of America’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico,” the Jan. 20 executive order said.

At her Thursday morning press conference, Sheinbaum highlighted that Trump’s executive order specifically refers to renaming the U.S. continental shelf area of the Gulf of Mexico, not the entire body of water.

Citing information from the Ministry of the Navy, she said that the U.S. continental shelf extends 22 nautical miles off the U.S. coast and therefore Trump “may have the power” to call “that little bit” of the body of water the Gulf of America because “it corresponds to the sovereignty of the United States.”

“We have sovereignty over our continental platform and Cuba has sovereignty over its part. And there is another part of international waters,” Sheinbaum said.

“Who we have a dispute with at the moment is Google,” she said, noting that the company responded to a letter sent by the government, but did not resolve its complaint over the name change on Google Maps.

“If it is necessary, we’ll file a civil lawsuit,” Sheinbaum said without specifying where.

“… Not even President Trump is suggesting that the entire Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America, but rather just their continental shelf. So Google is wrong,” she said.

If Google “keeps on insisting” on displaying the name Gulf of America for Google maps users in the United States (and Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of America for users outside the U.S. and Mexico), the Mexican government could resort to filing a civil suit, Sheinbaum reiterated.

“We’re going to wait,” she said, adding that the legal department of her office is looking into the possible filing of a civil suit against Google.

“We hope they review this. … Google Maps doesn’t set an international standard [on place names], it’s a private company … but even though it’s a private company it has become an international reference,” Sheinbaum said.

“… What we’re saying to Google is ‘review the decree the White House issued and which President Trump signed.’ You will see in the decree that the entire Gulf is not referred to, but rather the continental shelf,” she said.

Encyclopædia Britannica will continue to use ‘Gulf of Mexico’ for a few reasons:

-We serve an international audience, a majority of which is outside the U.S.

-The Gulf of Mexico is an international body of water, and the U.S.’s authority to rename it is ambiguous.

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— Encyclopaedia Britannica (@Britannica) February 12, 2025

Sheinbaum has expressed her opposition to Trump’s name change on repeated occasions, and in retaliatory remarks even suggested that the United States — or at least the country’s southwest — should be renamed “Mexican America,” as it appeared on old maps.

On Thursday, she thanked Encyclopedia Britannica for its declaration on social media that it will continue to use the Gulf of Mexico “for a few reasons,” including that “the U.S.’s authority to rename it is ambiguous” and “it has been called the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ for more than 425 years.”

Mexico News Daily