The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced that her country will sue Google, if they insist on labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The Gulf of Mexico, now called the Gulf of America was changed on February 10, after Trump signed an executive order, stating that the water body which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico be renamed.
According to Trump, the change was part of a broader initiative of renaming geographical features, reflecting national pride and economic significance.
However, this step has sparked a huge controversy, according to a report by The Washington Post, among the critics is Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum, who called the renaming “Incorrect” and said that Trump’s decree only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which reportedly extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast- not the entire Gulf.
” 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
“We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.” She added.
There are speculations that renaming Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America might be a strategy to assert national identity and ownership over the water body, which is significant for economic resources like oil, gas, fisheries and tourism.
Apart from the economic influence, renaming the sea could be a sign of disregarding cultural significance and historical context. Also, it might spark future debates about national identity, maritime rights and influence in the region.
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico is among the many orders that have been effected since Trump resumed office on January 20. He also froze the humanitarian aid United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funding crucial healthcare services across the world.
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