Claudia Sheinbaum’s patience has run out leading to Mexico suing Google over the changing of the name of the Gulf of Mexico on their maps (Press TV)
by Mick the Ram
After repeated requests have been ignored, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has filed a lawsuit against Google for changing the term “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” on its maps.
The change was made following an executive order signed by US President, Donald Trump, immediately after taking office for the second time back in January, with him justifying his decision by claiming the US “do most of the work there, and it’s ours anyway”.
In recent days the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to officially rename the Gulf for federal agencies.
Ms Sheinbaum has been critical of Google’s decision, saying they should not respond to “the mandate of a country” to change the name of “an international sea” contending that Trump’s order applies only to the US portion of the continental shelf.
She asserted that the US lacks the authority to rename the entire gulf: “All we want is for the decree issued by the US government to be complied with,” she said.
The president confirmed that the legal action had been taken, but did not provide specific details, simply stating that “Google has been sued.”
Google has previously said it has a “long-standing practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
The tech giant explained that other countries and international bodies are not required to recognize the name change, and Trump’s executive order applies only within U.S. Jurisdiction.
Patience runs out
Ms Sheinbaum wrote a letter to Google in January asking the firm to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico for US users. When that was ignored she threatened legal action and now her patience has run out and the decision has been taken sue.
Google has tried to explain their stand-point saying the gulf – which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico – would not be changed for people using the app in Mexico, or indeed users elsewhere in the world, other than for them to see the body of water labelled: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.
Press backs the Mexicans
The Associated Press (AP) news agency have been solidly in Mexico’s corner and their refusal to use the “Gulf of America” name led to a months-long conflict with the White House, which restricted the AP access to certain events.
They were barred from being part of the small press pool covering Mr Trump in the Oval Office and on board Air Force One.
However, a federal judge last month ordered the White House to stop side-lining the outlet and fully reinstate the news agency’s access, saying “the government cannot punish the news organisation for the content of its speech.”
Conforming to policy
Google maintain that they are just following established policies which commits them to impartially and consistency across all regions.
They simplified their stance, saying currently, Google Maps shows the body of water as “Gulf of America” in the US, “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico, and “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” elsewhere; but side-stepped the historical and political situation that it has created.
The multinational corporation and technology company said the change will be made “quickly” as soon as the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has been updated.
Making a point
Ms Sheinbaum repeated her stance in her most recent press briefing where she said again that the US “would not have the authority to name the entire Gulf, because that is an international attribution.”
Essentially, what she is saying (again) is that areas corresponding to Mexico or Cuba can’t be renamed by an outside authority.
“We couldn’t say anything about changing the name of a state, a mountain, or a lake; so the part of their territory that corresponds to them can be called whatever they decide, but nowhere else.”
History lesson
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 out from the line of the coast.
The Gulf of Mexico has been referred to as “The Gulf of Mexico” for hundreds of years; actually long before both Mexico and the US were founded.
Mexico had previously criticized Google for placating President Trump. It challenged the company to rename the US as América Mexicana, or Mexican America, as some of its territories were referred to way back in the 17th century.
Trump on a mission
Mr Trump seems determined to re-write the world map as he has also hinted that he may recommend changing the way the US refers to the Persian Gulf and consider changing that body of water’s name to the “Arabian Gulf” or the “Gulf of Arabia”.
Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, responded to receiving the controversial news by saying he hoped the “absurd rumours” were “no more than a disinformation campaign” and pointed out that such a move would “bring about the wrath of all Iranians”.
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