United States Naval Prison Facility (Cuba)



During the mid 1970s, a massive United States Naval Prison Facility was located within Cuba. It was located within the southernmost tip of Cuba and was considered "black land" because of its status as being an American "slice of pie" on communist soil with no legal jurisdictions.

Location and layout
The facility was located near a mountainous region. In addition, its size was expansive, which included several searchlights, its own airfield which included a heliport, prison facilities, and several white tents. The people normally guarding the facility were actually United States Marines who were stationed there. During instances of hurricanes, they wore green raincoats. It also contained various Jeeps and APCs, and was guarded by watchtowers and guard dogs, which were Doberman Pinschers.

The base contained two refugee camps, marked by numerous white tents, which contained refugees from both Cuba and Haiti. They were separately designated the "West refugee camp" and the "East refugee camp."

It also contained a prison facility and a prison camp named Camp Omega, which contained animal cages to house prisoners. It also had a makeshift storehouse. Camp Omega in particular also had maximum security clearance. Officially, Camp Omega was not in use.

Nearing the northeast was the Admin building, which had an external power generator that controlled the base's lights, a central control tower, a main gate, and a boiler room, the last of which acted as a makeshift prison. Because of its importance to the personnel, it was also dotted with surveillance cameras. It was also where the XOF was stationed whenever they paid a visit to the base.

The base also contained three armories. Despite their containing military-grade firepower, however, the armories were sealed with an ordinary lock instead of something more secure, largely because they were located in the middle of the base and thus had reasonably low chances of anyone not affiliated with the Marines entering the armories and stealing the firepower.

In order to ensure no prisoners escaped, and thus ensure the base's activities weren't exposed, the perimeter of the base, including the seashore near Camp Omega, was dotted with landmines.

History
The base was constructed sometime during the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century on land that had been leased to the United States, as a gesture for America's involvement in aiding Cuba gain its independence from Spain. Because of the conditions of the deal stating that the base and American ownership of it remains in effect only until either both countries decide to dissolve the base or otherwise America abandons the base, it still was owned by the American forces even after Cuba's revolution in 1958 and subsequent transformation into a communist country, and either way did not give any indication that it would vacate the site. Tensions arose from mines being planted on each side, and the U.S. stated that it followed neither Cuban nor American law, with United States Marine Corps members being assigned to guard the area. When it was first developed, the base was originally intended for detaining refugees from Haiti and Cuba. However, the CIA, during the 1970s, eventually ended up implementing a program to imprison "enemies of the State" on the base, an action that was strongly suspected to be due to Cipher's influence. Because of its status as leased land, this meant it was outside official American jurisdiction, thus civil liberties were not applicable in the base, and as such extreme torture was allowed, with human rights activists both from America and from other Western countries not being allowed inside. The part of the base not surrounded by the ocean or treacherous mountains was also surrounded with landmines planted by both American and Cuban forces, thus making escape on foot impossible. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Kojima Productions (2014). Info > Pre-mission Brief: Mission Background & Intel > Mission Intel: US Military Base, Cuba Kazuhira Miller: Snake, you can forget about civil liberties where you’re headed. God only knows what they’d do to you if you get caught. Do not let that happen. The Cubans leased the land to the U.S. as a gesture for helping them gain independence from Spain. The deal remains in effect until both countries agree to dissolve it or the U.S. abandons the land. That’s why America still operates the base even after la revolucion. Problem is, it’s leased land. // Naked Snake (Big Boss): Meaning it isn’t American soil, so the U.S. constitution doesn’t apply there. That allows them to withhold its civil rights protections. // Miller: Yeah, that’s Uncle Sam’s excuse. The area was originally only for detaining refugees from countries like Cuba and Haiti. But a few years ago, the CIA and it’s like started using it as a black site. Enemies of the State are renditioned there and subjected to extreme forms of interrogation. You can bet Cipher had a hand in that. As you’d expect, American and other Western human rights organizations aren’t allowed anywhere near the place. What happens there disappears down the memory hole. // Big Boss: Who knows what they’re doing to Chico and Paz. // Miller: I’d like to interrogate her ourselves, but if worst comes to worst, make sure she’s dead! Chico on the other hand we have to bring back – fast! He knows too much about us… // Big Boss: Kaz! // Miller: The area’s surrounded by mines placed by both the U.S. and Cuba, making escape on foot impossible. You’re heading into the lion’s den, Snake. Don’t take this one lightly. Come back in one piece. // Big Boss: Yeah.

The Marines on the base would attempt to get rid of any evidence of what was going on in the base if they found it. They were also ordered to execute any prisoners who tried to escape.

On December 3, 1974, Big Boss infiltrated the facility as part of a hit against a sniper team active during the Laotian Civil War, Glaz and Palitz. However, shortly after completing the mission, Big Boss, Miller, and MSF noticed that they seemed to be terrified, moreso than they would be of death. This caused MSF to become suspicious of the base's practices, eventually sending some agents from the Intel Team, into the base to find out any information on it.

On December 7, 1974, one of their agents, Hideo, requested an emergency extraction from the base. Hideo then managed to hijack a Jeep and drive to the heliport with a Hind escorting him. Unfortunately, his jeep crashed, and he was knocked unconscious, forcing Big Boss to directly interfere by stepping off. He then managed to take out the soldiers and an APC threatening the chopper, as well as shoot down a Blackhawk chopper pursuing them while they were escaping.

On December 21, 1974, Big Boss infiltrated the facility once again in broad daylight while aboard a truck, this time to meet up with an undercover agent planted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retrieve a Sony cassette tape that contained vital information. However, because the base was under tight security and their every action was being monitored, Big Boss and the agent had to maintain cover by the former placing him into an interrogation hold and then knocking him out after getting the necessary intel, and the latter stowing the tape away at a guard tower instead of directly supplying Big Boss with the tape, respectively. However, the agent's cover had been blown before the operation, and he had been forced to use a dummy tape containing an interrogation as a trap for Big Boss with a threat against his family. After Big Boss evaded the trap and interrogated the agent again, Big Boss then located a bald Marine that acted as an agent of Cipher and retrieved the real tape from him. He then escaped and supplied the MSF's client with the evidence that the base had become a black site.

On January 9, 1975, the JCS ordered for a MAGTF to invade the base due to suspicions about it being converted into a black site, based on evidence supplied by MSF earlier. In addition, at least three Pentagon agents ended up caught and imprisoned at the black site, alongside an MSF Intel Team agent that Miller had secretly dispatched to investigate further into whether the base had ties to Cipher. MSF had also been secretly hired to take out three of the base's four anti-aircraft emplacements. However, the base ended up undergoing a full alert due to the MAGTF's amphibious assault carrier being spotted earlier than expected. Big Boss managed to take the anti-aircraft emplacements as well as an APC that had a cannon to shoot down any choppers. However, the base ended up being targetted by a bombing run by unidentified fighter aircraft, obliterating it, with Big Boss just barely escaping before the bombing run commenced. They later suspected that Cipher had been involved in the base's becoming a black site. Sometime later, the base was rebuilt.

In Late February of 1975, Paz Ortega Andrade, after being discovered by a Belizean fisherman in the Caribbean, was detained at the camp by Cipher, feeling that their former agent had been compromised. Ten days later, Chico ended up captured after an attempt at sneaking into the facility from Santiago to retrieve Paz without MSF's knowledge ended up resulting in his getting caught, and ended up talking with the threat of killing Paz, as well as being subject to torture of unimaginable levels. Two days later, a mysterious, disfigured man arrived at the camp with his group, XOF, to supply Chico with a Walkman, telling him that "[Paz] told him everything," and that they ensured that she met a painless end in order to keep their promise before departing, also making it clear that Chico is to act as a double agent as a result. Afterwards, they left, also removing any signs of the logo of XOF.

Shortly thereafter, Big Boss infiltrated the camp, intending to rescue Paz and Chico, the former as a means to find out any leads towards Cipher, as she was the only viable lead to them. Big Boss utilized a prototype arm device to navigate his way around the camp, and also intended to use flare grenades to signal his extraction method, a Hind D, upon rescuing them. Because of a hurricane occurring at the time of the operation, Big Boss's infiltration went off without a hitch. Big Boss managed to locate Chico and Paz and rescued them.

Behind the scenes
The United States Naval Prison Facility appears in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. The facility is based on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which is also located near the southern tip of Cuba. The facility's Camp Omega is a nod to Guantanamo Bay's Camp Echo and Camp Delta (which didn't actually exist until 2002). In addition, like the Naval Prison Facility, in real life, the United States first seized Guantanamo Bay and established a naval base there in 1898 during the Spanish–American War. In 1903, the U.S. and Cuba signed a lease granting the U.S. permission to use the land as a coaling and naval station. The lease satisfied the Platt Amendment; this amendment stated a naval base at "certain specific points agreed upon by the President of the United States" was needed to "enable the U.S. to maintain independence of Cuba." The U.S. and Cuba signed a treaty in 1934, granting the US a perpetual lease. Both the U.S. and Cuba must agree on any termination of the lease. From the 1970s onward, the U.S. used portions of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for temporary housing of Cuban and Haitian refugees intercepted on the high seas, as many were trying to get from the Caribbean to the United States. When the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was established in 2002, the U.S. claimed that Guantanamo Bay detainees were not on U.S. soil and therefore not covered by the U.S. constitution, and that the "enemy combatant" status meant they could be denied some legal protections.

The opening for Ground Zeroes was originally supposed to show the entire camp before settling on the sign for "Camp Omega." However, the scene was excised to simply start at the showing of the sign as a demonstration of the Fox Engine's lighting effects after discussion between Kojima and his team.

The method by which Big Boss infiltrates the facility's grounds, climbing a rock wall, is similar to that performed by Solid Snake in Zanzibar Land, which was itself based on the film The Guns of Navarone that influenced series creator Hideo Kojima.

The TGS 2013 showing of Ground Zeroes featured an exclusive Side Op that was set in the prison facility. The mission depicted Big Boss interacting with an MSF planted mole at the facility, retrieving a Walkman cassette tape, getting into a shootout with enemies (which resulted in his extraction chopper being shot down), as well as destroying an enemy vehicle with a C4 booby trap.

The facility is destroyed in an air raid in the pseudo-historical Side-Op "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements," which is set a few months prior to the events of Ground Zeroes. The base was presumably rebuilt by the end of February 1975, when Paz Ortega Andrade was sent to the facility after being captured by Cipher.

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes