KRGV.com

MEXICO CITY (AP) Two months after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took office promising to reduce violent crime, the killings linked to drug cartels continue unabated.

Only the government's talk about them has dropped.

Eighteen members of a band and its retinue were kidnapped and apparently slain over the weekend in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon. Fourteen prisoners and nine guards died in an attempted prison escape in Durango state.

The difference under this administration is that there have been no major press conferences announcing more troops for drug-plagued hotspots. Gone are the regular parades of newly arrested drug suspects before the media with their weapons, cash or contraband.

Pena Nieto has been mum, instead touting education, fiscal and energy reforms.