Mexico announces lawsuit against Google over name change of “Gulf of Mexico”

On May 9, local time, Mexican President Sheinbaum announced that the country has officially sued Google for changing the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of the United States” in the Google Maps service for American users.

Sheinbaum said that the lawsuit documents have been submitted, but did not disclose the specific court institution and time node.

On January 20 this year, US President Trump signed an executive order to change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of the United States”. Trump then signed a proclamation to designate February 9 as “Gulf of the United States Day”. On May 8, the US House of Representatives passed a bill requiring federal agencies to change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” in all maps and documents to “Gulf of the United States”. The US move was strongly opposed by the Mexican government.

Mexican President Sheinbaum responded and expressed his opposition, saying that the name “Gulf of Mexico” has long been recognized by the United Nations. “The U.S. government has no right to name the entire sea area,” Sheinbaum said. “According to international rules, the Gulf of Mexico is a body of water shared by multiple countries, and its name has international legal force.”

After Trump signed the executive order, Google took a different approach to marking the Gulf of Mexico on digital maps: “American Gulf” was displayed to users using Google Maps in the United States, the Gulf of Mexico was displayed to users in Mexico, and both names were displayed to users in other regions.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously sent a letter to Google, asking Google not to mark the waters that belong to Mexico as the “American Gulf”, but Google did not respond immediately. Mexico believes that Google has arbitrarily expanded the scope of the mark to the entire Gulf of Mexico, including the Mexican continental shelf. This practice blatantly disregards international law and the bilateral treaty between the United States and Mexico.

The Gulf of Mexico is a body of water south of the United States and east of Mexico, and the name has been used since the 16th century.