Mexico has taken its case against changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico straight to the top—to Google. President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a press conference Thursday that she sent the company a letter asking it not to follow President Trump's executive order to call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" on its maps app. Sheinbaum argues that the US can't unilaterally rename the body of water it shares it with Cuba and Mexico, USA Today reports. Google has said it will use the name Trump wants for US users once it shows up on government sources.
The president said her government's position is that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that any nation's sovereign territory doesn't extend more than 12 nautical miles out from the coastline. "If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles," Sheinbaum said, not to the entire gulf. She added, "This is what we explained in detail to Google." The company has said Google users in Mexico would still see "Gulf of Mexico," and people in other parts of the world would see both names. Cuba's government hasn't responded to Trump's announcement yet.
Another large company has made the change. Chevron's earnings report released Friday uses Trump's preference multiple times, per CNBC. The energy giant, which donated $2 million for Trump's inauguration, had used the incumbent name of the gulf until now. In its earnings report, Exxon Mobil stuck with "US Gulf Coast," which the reports have been using. An editorial in a Mexican newspaper urged the government to push back against Trump's renaming, per CNN. Otherwise, El Universal said, Trump could start calling the US neighbor "Old Mexico." (More Gulf of Mexico stories.)