“American” is the official English word when referring to people or things from the United States, but it heavily implies that it means either all of North America or all of North and South Americas. Most other languages have different words for American (country) and American (continents). If there were a campaign to replace the word “America” with something else when referring to the US, what would you think of it?
I think you are missing the point. This is something that really bothers many people in Latin America, because it equates one small country with the whole continent. And its the country that has caused a lot of suffering in Latin America in the last century.