One thought it that it makes the street look ugly... but they are not that bad and the city employees people who wash them regularly.Another thought is that they move them to keep terrorists from hiding in them. The curious thing about about they cleared the Rambla was they posted two police officers on each cross street one block away to keep traffic from entering the Rambla.
However, they only posted police on the cross streets that would normally direct traffic to the Rambla. The one way streets that take traffic from the Rambla did not have any police posted on them.
So anyone wishing to enter the Rambla would only need to drive the wrong way on an empty street for a single block!
On the Rambla itself, they seemed to have police posted every block or so. The bottom line is that with the dumpsters moved no one would have any problem entering the street on foot, car, motorcycle or any other way.
By comparison when Bush left Ururguay for Colombia the security there consisted of 20, 000 police and military troops who were positioned roughly one meter apart vs one block apart here.
