Gaitan said the title successes of 1987 and 1988 – their most recent one – could be scratched from the record as it was during those years that drug lords laundered their gains through teams competing in the national championship.
It was during that period that the club was essentially bankrolled by infamous drug trafficker Gonzalo “El Mexicano” Rodriguez Gacha, who died in a shootout with police near a small farm in Colombia in 1989.
Gaitan says the club are looking to disassociate itself from the Gacha era and would therefore consider giving up those titles. The idea, according to him, was brought up by the club’s Board of Directors in a recent meeting.
"This is a debate about ethics – very preliminary. For now there remain hours of analysis and discussion. There is a discussion on the table about the possibility that we only retain those titles which were obtained in legal fashion," Gaitan told Colombian media.
Gaitan was speaking from Spain where he attended Wednesday's prestige Santiago Bernabeu Trophy encounter between his side and Real Madrid. The friendly match is to honour the late Alfredo Di Stefano, who played for both sides during his prolific career.
However, Gaitan’s comments were not well received by former coach Luis Augusto Garcia, who led the side to the two titles in question.
Garcia told City Noticias he believed that Gaitan "does not know how you go about landing a title."
The former coach added: "It seems an insult," insisting that the championships were "obtained with a group of people and a team (which put in) an immense amount of work."
Argentine Mario Vanemerak, who was one of the stars of that team, also said he considered Gaitan's comments "senseless." Vanemerak was adamantly against the team forfeiting the two titles.
"This is very disturbing for all who were on that team – it really cost us to land those titles. If the chairman wants to do so, then neither we nor the fans would forgive him as it is offensive," he told Caracol.
Even so, local politicians and even others in the Colombian sports world said they supported Gaitan's proposal.
"It's not a bad idea, and I hope it becomes a reality with the titles nullified," said Carlos Andrade, a former president of America de Cali who spoke in a separate radio interview. He suggested other teams should consider forfeiting titles, but mentioned no names.
Other clubs, including Nacional and America, also attracted the proceeds of drug running from the cartels run at the time by the likes of Pablo Escobar and siblings Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela in cities such as Medellin and Cali.
Gacha and Escobar were killed in standoffs with Colombian police, while the Rodriguez brothers were extradited to the United States.