lasting sixteen months (it was the longest in Colombian history). Despite the length and complexity of the season, Los Diablos Rojos were nonetheless able to win their ninth championship, beating Atlético Bucaramanga in the finals. They continued their dominance of Colombia into the early 2000s, winning titles in 2000, 2001, and the 2002 Apertura with homegrown manager Jaime de la Pava. However, it was not long afterwards that the tide began to turn against them. The new millennium and the "Clinton List" Although the 1990s had seen América win three more championships, it also saw a new development that would drastically undermine the foundation of the club's success. The new problem was a direct result of América's long rumored connections to drug cartel leader Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela. The cartels had been laundering their money in the United States, and in 1995 President Bill Clinton became engaged in a new effort to stop it. He signed Executive Order 12978, which compiled a list of suspected drug cartel fronts. Under the new law, it was illegal for any American business to engage in financial transactions with these fronts. In all, over 1,000 Colombian individuals and businesses were placed on the list. One such business was América de Cali and its board members. Their lives were suddenly changed. Transfer fees now needed to be paid in cash. Visas for tours in the United States were denied and any assets that the club held in American banks were frozen. Sponsorships dried up. Even prize money from international tournaments could not be delivered to the club, which was now entirely dependent on ticket sales for revenue. Unable to pay competitive salaries or acquire the top talent that they had acquired during the 1980s and 1990s, América was forced to sell off many of its stars and began fading as a force in Colombian football. By 2002, the players acquired back in the club's glory days were mostly gone, and the caliber of their replacements was nowhere near the same. Although the club managed to reach the semi-finals of the 2003 Copa Libertadores, the finals of the 2008 Apertura tournament, and win a championship in the 2008 Finalización tournament, these were merely a blip in a long, painful decline. Just a year after winning the league title, America found itself bottom of the aggregate table for the 2009 season, and finished second-to-last in the Finalizacion tournament.