Language comparison in template file
node--TYPE.tpl.php doesn't include the global $language variable as you can see in this document but you can still use it by bringing the variable into scope, using global.

I've updated your code below to show you how to get this working.

&lt;?php global $language; ?&gt;
&lt;?php if ($language-&gt;language == 'es'): ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="more"&gt;&lt;a href="&lt;?php print $base_url . $node_url ?&gt;"&gt;Leer más&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;?php elseif ($language-&gt;language == 'en'): ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="more"&gt;&lt;a href="&lt;?php print $base_url . $node_url ?&gt;"&gt;Read more&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;?php else: ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="more"&gt;&lt;a href="&lt;?php print $base_url . $node_url ?&gt;"&gt;Leere más&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;