Punctuation mark used by officer without the Spanish (5)
I believe the answer is:
colon
'punctuation mark' is the definition.
(I know that colon is a type of punctuation mark)
'officer without the spanish' is the wordplay.
'officer' becomes 'colonel' (colonel is a kind of officer).
'without' suggests deleting specific letters.
'the spanish' becomes 'el' ('the' in Spanish).
'colonel' with 'el' taken away is 'COLON'.
'used by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for colon that I've seen before include "Large intestine; punctuation mark" , "Punctuation mark; gut" , "Punctuate part of the large intestine" , "Panama port; part of intestine" , "Start of one canal" .)