The problem, described by Udi, was the following:
See section 1.10 of babel's manual, on page 12 under
"TROUBLESHOOTING". There cannot be
a closing curly brace after a shorthand, and in babel-spanish ">" is a
shorthand.
Patch from Dan.
For more discussion, see the following ML thread:
https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=mid&q=rwwvyyvwmx5wwvwhqdaioil32hblkzi7ghokzgekksrf66ww3f%40u6nj3guoayay
\use_default_options false
\maintain_unincluded_children no
\language spanish
-\language_package default
+\language_package \usepackage[spanish,es-noquoting]{babel}
\inputencoding utf8
\fontencoding auto
\font_roman "default" "default"