Rep. Welch: During Delegation Visit, Cuban Officials Angered We Met with Dissidents

REID: "Let's talk about the trip you took and this delegation that went to Havana. Tell us about what happened and what was the response from Cuban officials to these new overtures from the U.S.?" 
WELCH: "Well two things. One, the response from the Cuban people was amazingly positive. We were out on the street quite a bit run into people and we had our Cuban-American lapel pins and we had people excited that there would be engagement. We met with some dissidents before we met with Cuban officials and there was push-back from the Cuban officials that the fact that Senator Leehy who was a big advocate for relations was willing to meet with dissidents, which the government does have. So you have a government that does not encourage participation. And the real question for us, because we want a democratic Cuba, is whether the embargo and nonengagement works, which it doesn't, or is there a new dynamic in place that will be beneficial to the Cuban people of engagement of travel. And that is clearly the sense we got from the Cuban people that we visited with on the street."