Mexico is suing Google for ignoring repeated requests that the Gulf of Mexico not be called the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps for US users. This was announced by Speaker Claudia Sheinbaum, quoted by the BBC.
Earlier this week, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to officially rename the Gulf to federal agencies. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to this effect on his first day in office in January. According to him, the change is justified because the US "does most of the work there".
The Sheinbaum administration argues that Trump's order applies only to the US part of the continental shelf. "All we want is for the order issued by the US government to be respected," she explained. According to her, the US does not have the authority to rename the entire gulf.
In January 2025, Sheinbaum wrote a letter to Google asking the company to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico for users in the US. The Mexican president threatened the tech giant with a lawsuit.
At the time, Google announced that it had made the change as part of a long-standing practice of following name changes when they are updated by official government sources. The company noted that the name of the gulf, which borders the US, Cuba and Mexico, would not be changed for people using the app in Mexico, but users elsewhere in the world would see the label: "Gulf of America".