Mexico asks Google Maps not to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written a letter to Google asking the company to reconsider her decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order that requires that the body of water, which is bordered by the United States, Cuba and Mexico, will be called Golf de América in their first week in office.

But it will only appear on Google Maps with the new name for people based in the United States, in other parts of the world, it will retain its current name, which has been used for hundreds of years.

There is no international organization responsible for the appointment of water bodies.

But Mexico argues that the United States cannot legally change the name of the Gulf because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that the sovereign territory of an individual country only extends to 12 nautical miles from the coast.

“(The name change) could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles of the coasts of the United States of America,” said Sheinbaum.

Google has not yet responded to the request for comments from the BBC.

But in a statement on social networks on Monday, he said: “We have a long practice to apply name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

Mount Denali’s name will also change as Mount McKinley in the United States, after another Trump order.

“When official names vary between countries, Map users see their official local name,” he said.

Sheinbaum has criticized Google’s decision, saying that the company should not respond to the “mandate of a country” to change the name of “an international sea.”

But he seemed to make fun of Trump’s move to jokes in Mexico can demand that Google make some additional decisions of name change.

“By the way, we will also ask Mexican America to appear on the map,” he said.

Sheinbaum joked, would consider changing the name of North America as “Mexican America” ​​in the country.

“He says he will call him the Gulf of America on his continental platform,” said Sheinbaum previously when Trump signed the executive order.

“For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico, and for everyone is still the Gulf of Mexico.”