Do not rename the Gulf of Mexico: Mexico's president appeals to Google

Mexico's president is convinced that the new US government should not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico at all and has therefore asked Google not to adopt the name change to "Gulf of America". Claudia Sheinbaum made the announcement on Thursday, reports the BBC. The head of state is therefore convinced that the sovereignty of the USA under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea only extends to around 22 kilometers off the coast. International waters begin beyond that. The name change could therefore only affect this strip. However, she added that her country would also ask Google to rename North America "Mexican America" again.

Objection from Mexico

Sheinbaum's request to Google makes it clear that Mexico is probably not willing to accept the unilateral change to the name of the bay after all. Donald Trump announced this shortly after taking office as US President, and Google announced immediately afterwards that it would comply with the usual procedure. This means that the changed name will be displayed exclusively to all users in the USA on the company's own map service Google Maps. For people in Mexico, however, the name will remain "Gulf of Mexico", while both names will be displayed in the rest of the world. However, Mexico is not content with this. Google has not yet commented on the letter.

Mexico's reaction illustrates why the unilateral action is problematic for the IT company. In the middle of the week, it became known that the department responsible for maps now classifies the United States internally as a "sensitive" country. This means that the country is now treated in the same way as China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia or Iraq in relation to Google Maps. The changes ordered by Trump should therefore be implemented with the utmost urgency and the responsible employees should drop everything. However, the renaming on Google Maps has not yet been implemented.

(mho)