Brazil's low-key Falklands role

Brazil is playing an active role behind the scenes aimed at bringing about a negotiated settlement between Argentina and Great Britain, Monitor correspondent Louis Wiznitzer reports.

Latin America's largest, most influential country, Brazil has managed to preserve its credibility by refraining from abrasive statements. But its leadership feels that its geo-political interests are threatened as the war goes on and the time has come for the US and Brazil ''to tell the kids enough is enough,'' according to a Latin American diplomat.

Last week, Brazilian President Gen. Joao Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo told President Reagan at the White House that the crisis must be brought to an end to avoid a severe split between Latin America and the United States. He indicated that if the British shelled continental Argentina, Latin America's ''passive'' alliance with Argentina would become ''active.'' Furthermore, Brazil is concerned that a humiliated and weakened Argentina on its southern border would be susceptible to instability and subversion.

It appears to observers here that Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., now in Europe, has washed his hands of the matter and is not being helpful in the way Brazil had hoped for.