Punctuation mark used by the Spanish officer (7)
I believe the answer is:
colonel
'officer' is the definition.
(colonel is a kind of officer)
'punctuation mark used by the spanish' is the wordplay.
'punctuation mark' becomes 'colon' (colon is a kind of punctuation mark).
'used by' says to put letters next to each other.
'the spanish' becomes 'el' ('the' in Spanish).
'colon'+'el'='COLONEL'
(Other definitions for colonel that I've seen before include "Military rank" , "Army officer ranking below a brigadier" , "Commander" , "Army rank" , "Army three downn" .)