By Agencies
redaccion@latinocc.com
Mexico said Monday it’s awaiting a new response from Google to its request that the tech company fully restore the name Gulf of Mexico to its Google Maps service before filing a lawsuit.
President Claudia Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to her government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy.
It says that Google will not change the policy it outlined after U.S. President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.
“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said Monday during a morning press briefing.
As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as Gulf of America within the United States, as Gulf of Mexico within Mexico and Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using Gulf of America to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions” and that the company was willing to meet in person with the Mexican government.
“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.
Mexico has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the U.S. only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls 49% and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name Gulf of Mexico dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.
In response to Google’s letter, Mexican authorities said they would take legal action, writing that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”
Sheinbaum projected on a large screen at her daily press briefing Trump’s order called “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”
The renaming of the body of water by Trump has flared tensions between Mexico and the U.S. at a pivotal time for the neighboring allies.
Sheinbaum has had to walk a fine line with Trump amid threats of tariffs and Mexico and other Latin American countries have braced themselves for promised mass deportations, the brunt of which has still not been felt.
Along with the legal threat to Google, the Mexican president also announced Monday that Mexico and the U.S. would hold high-level meetings this week on trade and security in an effort to maintain a “long-term plan of collaboration” between the two countries.
It’s the latest round of talks between the two countries in which Mexico hopes to hold off a larger geopolitical crisis.
The renaming of the water body has fueled strife within the U.S. as well.
Last week, the White House barred Associated Press reporters from several events, including some in the Oval Office, saying it was because of the news agency’s policy on the name. The AP is using Gulf of Mexico to ensure that names of geographical features are recognizable around the world but also acknowledging Trump’s renaming of it as well.
ARGENTINA
A judge in Argentina was selected Monday to investigate allegations of fraud against President Javier Milei for his brief promotion of a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch last week.
A judge in Argentina was selected Monday to investigate allegations of fraud against President Javier Milei for his brief promotion of a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch last week.
Milei and his office denied involvement with creators of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, saying he initially drew attention to it Friday as an entrepreneurial project that might benefit Argentina but learned more about it later and then withdrew his support.
Lawyers in Argentina filed fraud complaints against the libertarian President on Sunday. The case was assigned Monday to Judge María Servini, head of Federal Court No. 1 in Buenos Aires. She doesn’t have a deadline to finish investigating the allegations.
In a tweet Friday evening that coincided with the launch of the $LIBRA crypto coin, Milei said that it was aimed at “encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.”
It enjoyed a brief spike in value above $4 billion in market capitalization, although its value began to decline amid comments of critics that it could be a scam. Milei deleted the post a few hours later as the value of the cryptocurrency was collapsing in a downturn that caused millions of dollars in losses to many of its new investors.
The coin, developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, could be obtained by accessing a link that directed users to a website called vivalalibertadproject.com, referring to the well-known phrase “Viva la libertad!” that Milei uses to close speeches and messages on his social media.
The president’s office said in a statement that Milei was not involved in any stage of the cryptocurrency’s development and decided to remove his post to avoid speculation and limit further exposure, following the public reaction to the project’s launch.
“The president shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of KIP Protocol’s project, as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who wish to launch projects in Argentina to create jobs and attract investments,” the president’s office said.
After deleting the post, Milei said on X he was unaware of the details of the cryptocurrency, and accused his political opponents of trying to exploit the episode.
“I was not aware of the details of the project, and after getting informed, I decided not to continue promoting it (which is why I deleted the tweet),” he said.
His office also said that the country’s Anti-Corruption Office, which operates under the executive branch, would investigate the case.
CHILE
On a recent hot summer day in Chile, the beaches of Viña del Mar, Concón and Reñaca are packed with holidaymakers sharing yerba mate teas and playing ball.
Others mill about in the shopping centers on the coast and in the capital, some wearing shirts with Lionel Messi’s name on them, carrying bags full of clothes, video games and mobile phones.
Between December 2023 and the same month in 2024 the Argentine peso appreciated by around 41% against the official U.S. dollar, thanks in part of a strong adjustment plan implemented by President Javier Milei, an ultra-liberal who came to power at the end of 2023 on vows to “blow up” the central bank, take an axe to the bloated government and kill sky-high inflation.
The stampede of Argentines traveling abroad for their summer vacations is driven by several factors, including the recent devaluation of various foreign currencies, the convenience of nearby destinations accessible by car and the prohibitively high cost of domestic vacations, especially along the Argentine Atlantic coast.
Argentine tourism abroad surged in December, with departures up 76.4% year-over-year to 1.3 million travelers compared to the same month the previous year, according to official figures. Of those, 80.7% visited neighboring countries, primarily Chile (28%), Brazil (22.6%) and Uruguay (15.6%).
Chile has become a popular destination for Argentines, who made up 40% of the 5.2 million visitors to the country in 2024 and early 2025. Chile’s strong economic position relative to Argentina has resulted in competitive prices, a major draw for Argentine tourists.
Chile’s tourism undersecretary, Verónica Pardo, noted that visitors are also spending more than in previous years, averaging about $63.3 per person per day.
BRAZIL
A young man from an isolated Indigenous tribe who approached a riverine community in Brazil’s Amazon returned voluntarily to his people less than 24 hours later, Brazilian authorities said.
The encounter occurred around 7 p.m. local time Wednesday in Bela Rosa, a community along the Purus River in the southwestern Amazon.
Footage obtained by The Associated Press shows him barefoot and wearing a small loincloth, seemingly calm and in good health as he carried two logs.
Locals believe the man was asking for fire.
Smartphone video of the encounter showed one resident trying unsuccessfully to show the man how to use a lighter.
Officials from Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, arrived soon after and took him to a nearby facility.
Funai said in a statement Friday that the young man returned to the forest on Thursday afternoon.
It added that a team of health professionals was sent to assess if the young man had been exposed to any disease to which isolated Indigenous tribes have no immunity.
They also said surveillance has been established to prevent people from reaching the isolated tribe’s location.
As a policy, Brazil does not actively seek contact with these groups but instead establishes protected and monitored areas, such as Mamoriá Grande, near where the encounter occurred.
