His buddy Fidel

As the Socialist administration in Madrid is about to find out, being friendly to the Castro brothers does not mean they will be friendly back to you.

Ask Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president.

A former trade union official, the democratically-elected Lula has been a public supporter of the Castro regime for years, regularly visiting Havana to have friendly chats with good old Uncle Fidel.

Well, good old Uncle Fidel has just struck back.

The ailing 80-year-old dictator has written another one of those rambling "editorials" in the official Cuban newspaper, Granma, in which he once again attacks Brazil's ambitious and well-advanced ethanol industry.

As this article in The Washington Post points out, the latest diatribe "has created a genteel tension" between the Cubans and the Brazilians, who can't understand why Lula's old buddy has turned nasty all of a sudden.

After all, Castro has been a supporter of ethanol as an alternative fuel for years.

In fact, only a few weeks ago, the regime announced with great fanfare a grand plan with Hugo Chavez to build 11 new ethanol-producing plants in Venezuela, using Cuban expertise in the field.

Here is one possible explanation, courtesy of The Miami Herald.