Mexico has initiated authorized proceedings in opposition to Google after the expertise firm altered the identify of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on its mapping service for customers in the US,reported The Guardian. President Claudia Sheinbaum introduced on Friday that the lawsuit has already been lodged, though she didn’t specify the jurisdiction or the exact date of submitting.
In keeping with the publication, the dispute follows a current resolution by Republicans within the US House of Representatives to enshrine a renaming of the Gulf into federal statute, a measure championed by Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The invoice, authorized largely alongside get together traces—with virtually unanimous Republican help and unanimous Democratic opposition—seeks to formalise former President Donald Trump’s 2020 government order, which designated the American portion of the Gulf because the “Gulf of America”.
Sheinbaum has maintained that Trump’s decree applies solely to the US’ continental shelf and doesn’t prolong to the whole physique of water. “All we would like is for the decree issued by the US authorities to be complied with,” she said, emphasising that the federal order lacks the authority to rename the gulf in its entirety.
In February, the Mexican authorities had already issued a warning to Google, urging the corporate to reverse the change or face potential authorized motion, the report added. On Friday, Sheinbaum reiterated that place, asserting Mexico’s proper to the historic nomenclature and its unwillingness to tolerate what she described as an overreach in cartographic sovereignty.
In a retort to Trump’s initiative, President Sheinbaum cheekily proposed referring to the US as “América Mexicana” on maps—a nod to the territories misplaced by Mexico following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The comment serves each as a symbolic riposte and a reminder of the fraught historical past between the neighbouring nations.
The controversy arises amidst broader tensions over commerce, as the 2 international locations have interaction in negotiations aimed toward de-escalating the tariffs imposed throughout Mr Trump’s presidency. Whereas the renaming invoice is unlikely to safe the Democratic help required to go the Senate, its passage within the Home underlines the persistent cultural and political friction that continues to form US–Mexico relations.
