The Mexican government is awaiting a response from Google regarding the country’s request to restore the name Gulf of Mexico to the tech giant’s maps service.
“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” said Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum during a press briefing.
According to reports from the Associated Press, last week Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to Mexico’s government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy.
The letter said Google will not change the policy it outlined after U.S. President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.
Mexican authorities threatened legal action in response saying that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction."
Currently for users in the U.S. Google Maps says Gulf of America, while in Mexico it says Gulf of Mexico and to the rest of the world Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
The change was the result of an Executive Order signed by the U.S. President on his first day in office.
Turner’s letter said the company was using “Gulf of America” to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions" adding Google was willing to meet with the Mexican government for further discussion.
“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world," wrote Turner.
Mexico’s government has argued that the existing mapping policy is violating Mexican sovereignty as the U.S. only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the body of water, whereas 49% is controlled by Mexico and another 5% by Cuba.
The naming of the Gulf dates to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.
Sheinbaum has also argued that the U.S. cannot rename the gulf based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which says a country's territorial sovereignty only extends 12 nautical miles from its coastline.
Tensions between the two countries are high at the moment amid threats of tariffs on Mexico and other Central and South American countries, along with mass deportations of non-U.S. citizens.
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