VATICAN CITY (AP) — Exit tourists. Enter cardinals.
The Vatican has closed the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather next week for the conclave to elect the next pope after the death of Pope Francis on April 21 at age 88.
Click to Gallery
Custodian of the Apostolic Shrine Padre Bruno Silvestrini closes the doors to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome, June 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
FILE - Tables and chairs line the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in preparation for the conclave, on April 16, 2005. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)
FILE - Visitors admire the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museums on the occasion of the museum's reopening, in Rome, May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE - This Dec. 10, 1999 file photo shows Michelangelo's fresco "La Creazione" ("The Creation") on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)
Francis was buried Saturday after a funeral in St. Peter's Square that gathered world leaders and hundreds of thousands of others, and a nine-day period of mourning is continuing before the conclave can start.
But the church is at the same time turning its attention to the next steps.
Key is preparing the Sistine Chapel for the red-robed cardinals who will gather at the Vatican in the heart of Rome to choose the next pope in an ancient process fictionalized in the 2024 film “Conclave.”
One task: installing the chimney where ballots will be burned after votes.
Those visitors who managed to enter on Sunday considered themselves lucky, since there is no telling how long the conclave will last, and how long the gem of the Vatican Museums will remain off-limits.
“I think we felt very lucky to be able to be the last group of visitors to come in today," said Sumon Khan, a tourist from the United States. “You know, our trip would not have been complete without seeing this beautiful place.”
Catholic cardinals on Monday set May 7 as the start date for the conclave after arriving for the first day of informal meetings following Francis’ funeral Saturday
When the conclave starts, the cardinals will enter solemnly to participate in a secretive process said to be guided by the holy spirit that will result in the selection of the next leader of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic church. The choice will determine whether the next pontiff will continue Francis' reforms, with his focus on the poor and marginalized and the environment, or whether they will choose a pontiff closer in style to conservative predecessors like Benedict XVI focused on doctrine.
For inspiration, the cardinals will also have the great beauty of the frescoes painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists. The most recognizable is Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, showing God's outstretched hand imparting the divine spark of life to the first man.
The chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV, an art patron who oversaw the construction of the main papal chapel in the 15th century. But it was a later pontiff, Pope Julius II, who commissioned the works by Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling depicting scenes from Genesis from 1508 and 1512 and later returned to paint the Last Judgement on one of the walls.
When the conclave opens, cardinals will chant the Litany of Saints, the solemn, mystical Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints, as they file into the chapel and take an oath of secrecy. The chapel's thick double doors will close and the master of liturgy will utter the Latin words “Extra omnes,” meaning “everyone out.”
The secretive process is part of a tradition aimed at preserving the vote from external interference.
The world will then wait for a sign that a successor to Francis has been chosen. Black smoke coming from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel will indicate that they haven't achieved the two-thirds majority for a new pope.
But when a pope is finally chosen, white smoke will rise and bells will toll.
Associated Press video journalist Pietro De Cristofaro in Rome contributed to this report.
Custodian of the Apostolic Shrine Padre Bruno Silvestrini closes the doors to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome, June 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
FILE - Tables and chairs line the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in preparation for the conclave, on April 16, 2005. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, File)
FILE - Visitors admire the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museums on the occasion of the museum's reopening, in Rome, May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)
FILE - This Dec. 10, 1999 file photo shows Michelangelo's fresco "La Creazione" ("The Creation") on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called on oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House looks to quickly secure $100 billion in investments to revive the country's ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.
Since the U.S. military raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has quickly pivoted to portraying the move as a newfound economic opportunity for the U.S., seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil, and saying the U.S. is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil and will be controlling sales worldwide indefinitely.
Trump used the meeting with oil industry executives to publicly assure them that they need not be skeptical of quickly investing in and, in some cases, returning to the South American country with a history of state asset seizures as well as ongoing U.S. sanctions and decades of political uncertainty.
“You have total safety,” Trump told the executives. “You’re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.”
Trump added: “Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government’s money. They don’t need government money. But they need government protection."
The president said the security guarantee would come from working with Venezuelan leaders and their people, instead of deploying U.S. forces. He also said the companies would “bring over some security.”
Trump played up the potential for major oil companies to strike big, while acknowledging that the oil executives were sharp people who were in the business of taking risk, a quiet nod to the reality that he's asking for big investment in Venezuela at moment when the country is teetering and economic collapse is not out of the question.
Trump welcomed the oil executives to the White House after U.S. forces earlier Friday seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the U.S. to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration's plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies.
It's all part of a broader push by Trump to keep gasoline prices low. At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
The White House said it invited oil executives from 17 companies, including Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, as well as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalization of private businesses under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it's un-investable,” said Darren Woods, the ExxonMobil CEO. “And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections and there has to be change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.”
Other companies invited included Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol as well as a vast swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets.
Large U.S. oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested that the U.S. would help to backstop any investments.
Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels a day. At the heart of Trump's challenge to turning that around is convincing oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, and can provide protections for companies entering the market.
Trump, however, is confident that Big Oil is ready to take the plunge, but allowed that it's not without risk.
“You know, these are not babies,” Trump said of the oil industry executives. “These are people that drill oil in some pretty rough places. I can say a couple of those places make Venezuela look like a picnic.”
The president also offered a new rationale for ousting Maduro and demanding the U.S. maintain oversight of its Venezuelan oil industry, saying, “One thing I think everyone has to know is that if we didn’t do this, China or Russia would have done it."
While Rodriguez has publicly denounced Trump and the ouster of Maduro, the U.S. president has said that to date Venezuela's interim leader has been cooperating behind the scenes with his administration.
Tyson Slocum, director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s energy program, criticized the gathering and called the U.S. military’s removal of Maduro “violent imperialism." Slocum added that Trump’s goal appears to be to “hand billionaires control over Venezuela’s oil.”
Meanwhile, the United States and Venezuelan governments said Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and a delegation from the Trump administration arrived in the South American nation Friday.
The small team of U.S. diplomats and diplomatic security officials traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.
Trump also announced Friday he’d meet next week, either Tuesday or Wednesday, with Maria Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition party, as well as with Colombian President Gustavo Petro in early February.
Trump has declined to back Machado, even as the U.S. and most observers determined her opposition movement defeated Maduro in Venezuela's last election. Trump said following Maduro's ouster that Machado “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country” to lead.
Trump called on the Colombian leader to make quick progress on stemming flow of cocaine into the U.S.
Trump, following the ouster of Maduro, had made vague threats to take similar action against Petro, describing the Colombia leader as a “sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”
Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart after a friendly phone call in which he invited Petro to visit the White House.
The seeming détente between Petro, a leftist, and Trump, a conservative, appears to reflect that their shared interests override their deep differences.
For Colombia, the U.S. remains key to the military’s fight against leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Washington has provided Bogotá with roughly $14 billion in the last two decades.
For the U.S., Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, remains the cornerstone of its counternarcotics strategy abroad, providing crucial intelligence used to interdict drugs in the Caribbean. —
Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
Harold Hamm, founder and chairman of Continental Resources, speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump and oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of ExxonMobil Darren Woods greets President Donald Trump, not pictured, with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, seated left, and Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Marathon Petroleum Maryann Mannen, seated right, during a meeting in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump listens to Sec. of State Marco Rubio speak during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump talks with Valero Chief Executive Officer and President Lane Riggs, second from right, while Tallgrass Energy President and Chief Executive Officer Matt Sheehy, far left, Repsol Chief Executive Officer Josu Jon Imaz, second from left, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Continental Resources Harold Hamm, far right, look on during a meeting in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump waves as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
