Mexico asks Google Maps not to rename Gulf of Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written a letter to Google asking the firm to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring the body of water – which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico – be renamed the Gulf of America in his first week in office.

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

There is no international organisation responsible for the naming of bodies of water.

But Mexico argues the U.S. cannot legally change the Gulf’s name 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 out from the coastline.

“[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America,” Sheinbaum said.

Google has not yet responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

But in a statement on social media on Monday it said: “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

It will also rename Mount Denali as Mount McKinley in the US, following another order from Trump.

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

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

But she seemed to poke fun at Trump’s move by joking Mexico may demand Google make some additional renaming decisions.

“By the way, we are also going to ask for Mexican America to appear on the map,” she said.

Sheinbaum previously joked she would consider renaming North America as “América Mexicana” in the country.

“He says that he will call it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf,” Sheinbaum previously said when Trump signed the executive order.

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