During a press conference on Monday, Sheinbaum slammed Google’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" across the entire body of water.
She argued that President Donald Trump’s directive only applied to the portion of the gulf under US jurisdiction.
“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said, per The Hill. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”
Sheinbaum shared a response from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, stating that the company would not reverse its decision: “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,” Turner wrote.
Google Maps labels the gulf differently depending on the location: "Gulf of America" within the US, "Gulf of Mexico" within Mexico, and "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)" in Canada and other regions.
Sheinbaum says that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”
“If necessary, we will file a civil suit,” Sheinbaum said, adding that even Trump’s directive did not extend to the entire Gulf of Mexico. She urged Google to reexamine the move, arguing that it only applies within 22 nautical miles of the US coastline.
In addition to the dispute with Google, Sheinbaum announced that Mexico and the US would hold high-level meetings on trade and security this week. She also warned that Mexico may take legal action against the US if Washington designates certain organized crime groups as terrorist organizations.
“If they declare these organized crime groups as terrorists, we will have no option than to extend our lawsuits against the US, because as the Justice Department has already confessed, 74 percent of all firearms in possession of drug cartels come from the US,” she said.
Sheinbaum also suggested recently that gun manufacturers could face new legal challenges, stating that a charge of alleged "complicity" with terror groups might be considered.
