América won the 1930 Amateur Tournament, and arranged a playoff with local rivals Cali FC to determine who would enter Colombia's top league (then known as the Liga de Fútbol).

That last season not only saw Hugo Lóndero set a Colombian record by scoring 24 goals but also qualified América for their first Copa Libertadores in history.

The highlight came in 1976, when América won the Copa Simón Bolívar (an international tournament that included clubs from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay).

Inclined towards defensive football, Ochoa built his club around a solid back line, featuring captain Aurelio Pascuttini and Luis Eduardo Reyes.

Juan Manuel Battaglia and Gerardo Gonzalez Aquino played in the midfield, while Jorge Ramón Cáceres and Alfonso Cañón led the attack up front.

During that stretch, Ochoa was refreshing the team with new arrivals, like Argentine keeper Julio César Falcioni and strikers Roque Alfaro, Humberto Sierra and Antony de Ávila.

América won every Colombian competition that year—the Apertura, their Finalización group, and the octagonal playoff of the year's top eight teams to determine the national champion.

[17] América had won two championships with an impenetrable defense, but in the ensuing offseason, Ochoa completed an acquisition that would drastically change his side's character and strategy.

1984 saw Ochoa strengthen his midfield by signing Peruvian César Cueto, a creative player nicknamed "The Left-Footed Poet" in his native country.

[19] In 1985, as América set its sights on another title, Ochoa strengthened the squad again, this time by adding Paraguayan forward Roberto Cabañas and Argentine striker Ricardo Gareca.

It was another hard-fought race, but ultimately the club was able to hold off a late surge by Deportivo Cali and bring home the crown, clinching the title with a win over their crosstown rivals.

After the match, a journalist received a call from a man claiming to be one of the murderers and blaming Ortega for the result of the game, saying "we and our patrons lost a lot of money (because of this)".

Spurred on by their near miss in the cancelled season of 1989, the club marched to the championship in 1990, winning the Apertura, the Finalización, and the playoff tournament in grand style.

Maturana had won the 1989 Copa Libertadores with Atlético Nacional and guided Colombia to the knockout stages of the 1990 World Cup, then managed Real Valladolid in Spain during the 1990–91 season.

[26][27] In 1993, Maturana's final year with the club, the side slipped to fourth place domestically but still managed an impressive campaign in the Copa Libertadores.

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.

However, it was not long afterwards that the tide began to turn against them, and de la Pava left by mutual consent after missing out on the 2002 Finalización finals by one point.

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.

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.

Things didn't improve in the Copa Libertadores either; the team finished bottom of its group and exited the tournament without winning a single game.

On 27 November, La Mechita achieved promotion to the Categoría Primera A after five seasons in the second division with a 2–1 victory against Deportes Quindío on the last matchday of the semifinal stage, thanks to goals from Ernesto Farías and Cristian Martinez Borja.

The team placed seventh in the Torneo Apertura, advancing to the knockout phase, where they were eliminated by crosstown rivals Deportivo Cali in the semi-finals.

In the Torneo Finalización, the team placed sixth and were eliminated again in the semi-finals, this time by Millonarios, who would eventually win the tournament against Santa Fe.

In their return to international competition, they were knocked out of the 2018 Copa Sudamericana in its first round by Argentine side Defensa y Justicia after winning 1–0 in Argentina and losing the second leg in Cali by a 3–0 score.

In the final, Los Diablos Rojos faced Junior, whom they beat 2–0 on aggregate score over two legs to win the championship and secure a return to the Copa Libertadores for its 2020 edition after an 11-year absence.

In 2021, América de Cali were able to advance to the knockout stages of the Apertura tournament, losing to Millonarios in the quarter-finals over two legs, but failed to qualify for the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores after ending in third place of a group with Cerro Porteño from Paraguay, Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro and Venezuelan champions Deportivo La Guaira as rivals, which cost Juan Cruz Real his post as Escarlata manager.

Juan Carlos Osorio was hired as new manager for the Finalización tournament as well as the knockout stages of the Copa Sudamericana, where they were beaten by the eventual champions Athletico Paranaense in the round of 16.

Osorio continued as manager for 2022, but he was eventually sacked after a few games in the 2022 Apertura tournament due to a combination of poor on-field performances, as well as personal rifts with the club's controlling shareholder and elimination from the Copa Sudamericana at the hands of Independiente Medellín in the first round.

Alexandre Guimarães returned to América following Osorio's dismissal, but the team failed to advance to the Apertura semi-finals and was also knocked out of the Copa Colombia by Unión Magdalena in the round of 16.

The rivalry dates back to a local football tournament in 1931; Deportivo Cali prevailed 1–0 in a controversial game that saw two América goals disallowed.