Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has written a letter to Google asking the agency to rethink its resolution to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
US President Donald Trump signed an govt order requiring the physique of water – which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico – be renamed the Gulf of America in his first week in workplace.
However it is going to solely seem on Google Maps with the brand new identify for folks based mostly within the US – elsewhere on this planet it is going to retain its present identify, which has been used for a whole bunch of years.
There is no such thing as a worldwide organisation answerable for the naming of our bodies of water.
However Mexico argues the U.S. can’t legally change the Gulf’s identify as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Legislation of the Sea dictates that a person nation’s sovereign territory solely extends as much as 12 nautical miles out from the shoreline.
“[The name change] might solely correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the USA of America,” Sheinbaum mentioned.
Google has not but responded to the BBC’s request for remark.
However in a press release on social media on Monday it mentioned: “We have now a longstanding observe of making use of identify modifications after they have been up to date in official authorities sources.”
It’s going to additionally rename Mount Denali as Mount McKinley within the US, following one other order from Trump.
“When official names fluctuate between nations, Maps customers see their official native identify,” it mentioned.
Sheinbaum has criticised Google’s resolution, saying the agency mustn’t reply to “the mandate of a rustic” to alter the identify of “a global sea”.
However she appeared to poke enjoyable at Trump’s transfer by joking Mexico might demand Google make some further renaming selections.
“By the way in which, we’re additionally going to ask for Mexican America to look on the map,” she mentioned.
Sheinbaum beforehand joked she would contemplate renaming North America as “América Mexicana” within the nation.
“He says that he’ll name it the Gulf of America on its continental shelf,” Sheinbaum beforehand mentioned when Trump signed the chief order.
“For us it’s nonetheless the Gulf of Mexico, and for the whole world it’s nonetheless the Gulf of Mexico.”
