Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is taking another stand against Donald Trump’s efforts to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America.
According to reports from CNN and Reuters, Sheinbaum announced on Thursday, Jan. 30 that she had sent a letter to Google, imploring the tech giant not to comply with Trump’s order to rename the gulf.
“In the case of Mexico, where are we completely sovereign? In the area established as 12 nautical miles from the coastline, and this applies to all countries worldwide,” the letter (originally in Spanish), states, per CNN.
“If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles. It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico. This is what we explained in detail to Google,” Sheinbaum told reporters, referring to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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Sheinbaum also spoke about the previous half-joking counterproposal she made to Trump to rename the US as “América Mexicana” or Mexican America, using a map from 1607.
“We ask that when you put Mexican America in the search engine, the map appears that we presented,” she added, referring to a map provided to the public earlier this month.
Google previously addressed its plan to comply with Trump’s executive order in a post on X, citing a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources” — which is based on updates to the Geographic Names Information System.
“Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name,” the X post states. “Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names. That applies here too.”
Google did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Thursday.
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Trump first announced the idea for renaming the body of water the Gulf of America on Jan. 7, sharing in a press conference that he thought the change was “appropriate.”
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory,” he said. “The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.”
The 47th president later signed an executive order declaring that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed on Monday, Jan. 20.
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According to the White House, the order said, “The area formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico has long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America.” It ended by noting, “The Gulf will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy, and in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that it officially be renamed the Gulf of America.”
Sheinbaum previously told reporters that she believes Trump should only be able to rename the American part of the body of water.
“He says that he will call it the ‘Gulf of America’ on its continental shelf. For us, it is still the Gulf of Mexico and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said on Jan. 21, per the Associated Press.
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