Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has blasted Google for kowtowing to Donald Trump by changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico – and wants the United States to be identified as “América Mexicana.”
Sheinbaum attacked Google after Trump unilaterally decreed last week in an executive order that the Gulf of Mexico will henceforth be known as the “Gulf of America” – and Google quickly agreed to comply on its Google maps.
All it takes for such a name change is for U.S. documents to make the switch, Google explained in a statement Monday on X. Google claimed the move was in line with its “longstanding practice of applying name changes” when they have simply been “updated in official government sources.”
We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025
The company also said it will “quickly” change the name of North America’s tallest peak, Alaska’s Denali, to Mt. McKinley, as Trump has demanded in a move that has triggered furious criticism, once official documents are updated.
Trump declared both changes in an executive order to “honor America’s greatness.”
Americans will see the “Gulf of America” on their Google maps, Mexico will see the “Gulf of Mexico,” and the rest of the world will see both, according to Google.
Sheinbaum objected to Trump and Google’s name grab in a letter addressed to the company that she showed reporters Thursday. But if Google is so cavalierly changing names on its maps, Sheinbaum wants the United States identified as América Mexicana, she said Wednesday.
Sheinbaum recognizes that she has no authority to do so, just as Trump has no power to switch the name of the Gulf of Mexico, she noted.
The U.S. cannot unilaterally change the name of a body of water which it shares with Cuba and Mexico because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that an individual country's sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles from the coastline, she noted.
“If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google.”
But in a tit for tat, Sheinbaum is calling on Google to display the map of América Mexicana as including regions of the United States.
"We ask that when you put América Mexicana in the search engine, the map appears that we presented,” she told Google.
Trump has not commented on Sheinbaum’s demand.
Google has not responded to questions from The Independent on whether it will include sections of the U.S. on América Mexicana on Google Maps – once the switch is recorded in official Mexican documents, which is apparently the sole Google requirement for such a change.
The name América Mexicana was first seen on maps in 1607. It includes various areas in what is currently known as the United States.
