Mexico has initiated legal proceedings against Google after the technology company altered the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on its mapping service for users in the United States,reported The Guardian. President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday that the lawsuit has already been lodged, although she did not specify the jurisdiction or the precise date of filing.
According to the publication, the dispute follows a recent decision by Republicans in the US House of Representatives to enshrine a renaming of the Gulf into federal statute, a measure championed by Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The bill, approved largely along party lines—with almost unanimous Republican support and unanimous Democratic opposition—seeks to formalise former President Donald Trump’s 2020 executive order, which designated the American portion of the Gulf as the “Gulf of America”.
Sheinbaum has maintained that Trump’s decree applies solely to the United States’ continental shelf and does not extend to the entire body of water. “All we want is for the decree issued by the US government to be complied with,” she stated, emphasising that the federal order lacks the authority to rename the gulf in its entirety.
In February, the Mexican government had already issued a warning to Google, urging the company to reverse the change or face potential legal action, the report added. On Friday, Sheinbaum reiterated that position, asserting Mexico’s right to the historic nomenclature and its unwillingness to tolerate what she described as an overreach in cartographic sovereignty.
In a retort to Trump’s initiative, President Sheinbaum cheekily proposed referring to the United States as “América Mexicana” on maps—a nod to the territories lost by Mexico following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The remark serves both as a symbolic riposte and a reminder of the fraught history between the neighbouring nations.
The controversy arises amidst broader tensions over trade, as the two countries engage in negotiations aimed at de-escalating the tariffs imposed during Mr Trump’s presidency. While the renaming bill is unlikely to secure the Democratic support required to pass the Senate, its passage in the House underlines the persistent cultural and political friction that continues to shape US–Mexico relations.
