The President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Tuesday that the Gulf of Mexico will continue to be called that and asked for “no more speculation” on the subject, following the recent announcement of a name change that the internet search engine Google will make in its maps application to “Gulf of America”, based on the executive order of the US president, Donald Trump, at the beginning of his term.
In her daily press conference, the Mexican president recalled that, according to the decree signed by Trump, the name change applies only to the US “continental shelf” and not to the entire gulf.
“It is very important because that is what he signed, the continental shelf of the United States, so let’s not speculate any more, this is what is signed by President Trump,” she said from the National Palace in Mexico City.
After minimizing the impact of the internet platform, the most consulted in the West, Sheinbaum recalled a similar situation in the country, when the Sea of Cortés, during the administration of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had its name changed to the Gulf of California.
“It’s like the issue of the Sea of Cortés, which is Mexican territory, and well, why are we going to leave it with the name of Hernán Cortés? We have a responsibility. So what are we basing it on? That’s why I always say: keep a cool head. In what was signed, this was what was signed, which is its continental shelf. That’s what he signed. The Gulf of Mexico is still the Gulf of Mexico,” the president insisted.
The name Sea of Cortez is due to the influence and explorations associated with Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.
